I know people feel the need to be environmentally conscious. I do as well. But let’s get past the BS. Very few companies are “Green” for the sake of being “Green”. IBM spelled it out nicely with their commercials, the CEO doesn’t want to hear about going “Green” until he realizes that it can impact his bottom line (going green means a savings on energy bills). I’m all for that! I’ve been a major proponent of leveraging virtualization at our office. in the hopes that I can snag one of the servers that get decommissioned from consolidation we can reduce our carbon footprint and save on hardware maintenance costs.

I came back late Monday night (or early Tuesday morning depending on your view) from an extended weekend in Chicago -- well technically it wasn’t the weekend for me since I was still working to finish the final stretch of this pretty interesting project at the office – and noticed that the dumpster that is normally in the parking lot was gone. Thinking nothing of it I bundled the garbage that had accumulated in the rental car (it gets better mileage than the family car so I’m being “green”), placed it in the pen where the dumpster normally would be and proceeded to unpack the family and dump the girls in their respective beds.

I get home from work and find a notice on my door from the management community saying that per a previous notice the dumpster behind our unit had been removed and we were to use a centralized community trash compactor. Any further “infractions” would be penalized by a fine. Mind you this centralized garbage drop off is a good five blocks away from my unit.

So I call and ask them if they really expect me to carry my trash 5 blocks in order to get rid of it. “Well most people just put it in their car and drive it there.” I’m not even going to go into my reaction regarding the thought of putting garbage in my car to drive to their dumpster (like it’s laundry or something) Here’s the punch line. They had the nerve to say on the notice this was part of their “Green Initiative” in “reducing carbon footprints by having one site for the waste company to pickup from”.  Really? You’re telling me that having 500+ Apartments load their car up with garbage and drive out of their way to dump it reduces the carbon footprint? Even IF it did, that’s not what I signed up for when I put my name on the lease. That’s tantamount to me looking at the apartment and seeing the Washer and Dryer in unit, signing the lease based on that and halfway through the lease, they take my Washer and Dryer away.

By the way I feel sorry for the people who live in the units next to the central dump because it’s overflowing (grossly undersized for being the only dumpster in the entire FRIGGIN SUBDIVISION) and I’m sure it stinks and attracts rodents. But hey we’re saving a ton by making our residents do the work we’d have to pay for normally “Green”. So, if you don’t feel like hauling around trash for a quarter mile as part of your lease, I’d advise steering clear of Main Street on the Monon Apartments. I’m sure once they start realizing potential residents are choosing not to stay because there’s no nearby garbage unit, they’ll suddenly revise their “green” strategy. Until then they’re just another company using a buzz word like “Human Resources” thinking that it will cover up the stench of what they’re doing.