Charged $70 for using wrong dumpster
<p>Email from complex: Trash Reimbursement-2 bags found in constrution dumpster $70</p>
<p>My son came over mother's Day took out my trash. he put it in the construction dumpster instead of the regular dumpster which is about 30 ft away. My apartment complex has charged me $70 for two Amazon boxes is that legal?</p>
<p>Lease:
Rubbish Removal - Tenant agrees to keep the apartment in a reasonably clean condition. Garbage and refuse should be wrapped/tied in</p>
<p>plastic bags and regularly removed from the apartment to avoid unsanitary/odor conditions. No trash shall be stored in public view
(example: common hallways, patios/balconies, etc). Trash removal from common areas will be billed at $35 per item. Tenant shall place rubbish/trash in designated trash containers for waste removal service pick up. Tenant agrees to abide by all property recycling
requirements.</p>

<p>We'd need to know more about the jurisdiction, but in the US at least I think the general conclusion would be &quot;yes&quot;, it is.  Use of trash bins and dumpsters is pretty tightly regulated. Your lease most likely includes specific terms about the use of dumpsters, as well.</p>
<p>For a simple explanatory hypothetical, think &quot;a junkie (or neighbor who hates you, etc.) tosses drugs and/or drug paraphernalia into my trash, but leaves the lid off; a neighbor sees it, calls the police; police think they're my drugs, now I have to deal with charges on that&quot;. That's a major pain and a potentially serious disruption to your entire life and reputation.  It'd be nice if there were laws to discourage that and absolve you of responsibility when some ne'er-do-well comes along, right?  Well, there are: in all US jurisdictions I'm aware of, you may use only those receptacles you are authorized to use or you can be fined (or worse, depending).</p>
<p>An additional reason is that trash pickup is done under contracts—in your case, between your apartment complex and a trash disposal company, and a construction company and a potentially different trash disposal company. A given receptacle may only be expected and contracted to have specific kinds and amounts of refuse in it, and is only expected to be serviced for that.  Having excessive refuse or inappropriate refuse causes problems for the one disposing of the trash, and may incur additional fees or breach of contract issues to the one(s) authorized to dispose into the receptacle. This can result in disruption or termination of disposal services, too. Certain jurisdictions may also legally require that a certain percentage of certain refuse types (e.g. recyclables) go into particular bins, and may impose fines for failure to comply. Understandably, a construction business (or apartment complex, or private resident, etc.) is not going to want to deal with these issues when someone drops additional trash into their bin.</p>
<p>In short: dumpsters are not public free-for-alls, and you can expect to be fined for ignoring that.  Same goes for private trash bins: you can't just freely toss a bit of trash you have into a neighbor's garbage bin just because it's on the curb for pickup and it's convenient.</p>

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