When did it become ok?

Mondays are garbage day. Every afternoon it is always interesting to see just where and in what position our trash can winds up in after the garbage men empty it. Usually it is just sitting in the sidewalk on its side.

Today, today our trash can was 15 feet into the neighbors front yard. The lid was three houses down, three houses down and across the street, three houses down across the street and as flat as a pancake. It had apparently been run over by a car at some point during the morning.

Where I grew up we didn't have the "bring your trash to the curb" thing. The trash guys would walk behind the house with a rolling can, empty our trash, replace the trashcan, and take the garbage away. If you didn't look in the can you wouldn't even know they had been there.

I understand that bringing your can to the curb is accepted and also reasonable. But when did it become ok for the garbage hauling vendor to just pitch your can wherever once they'd emptied it? Is it so much to ask that it simply be replaced where they got it, with the lid placed on it? To not do that just seems impolite.

I saw a thing on Monster Garage where they turned some car into a garbage truck and made a big joke about crushing the can and pitching it wherever. So I gather that this is a problem not unique to my street.

I get the feeling that had the car that ran over the lid to my can kicked it up and dented a neighbor's car, or thrown it into a kid walking home for school, that I would probably be on the business end of a law suit. I doubt that the vendor would have a problem, after all the thing is my property, my responsibility.

Oh well. So much shouting at the wind today. But then, I guess that is part of what blogging is for.