The average-sized household in Fairfax County, Virginia, has 2 or 3 people — 2.71 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
My household in Fairfax County has eight people — plus two dogs.
Fairfax has a confusing system for residential trash collection, but if your home is serviced by the county, you get one big trash bin from the county. Here’s the crucial detail: The county will only haul off the trash you put in that single bin.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, we would regularly set out multiple bins of trash, and the waste contractor would take it all. In our former rental home that relied on private trash removal, the trash guys likewise took all the trash bags we set out on the curb.
So it was an unpleasant surprise shortly after we moved to our new home earlier this month when the trash guys left most of our trash because it wasn’t in the single bin. The remaining bags were torn open by raccoons, and we just had to toss them into the county trash bin — which was instantly full again, a week before the next pickup.
The problem was exacerbated by the extra trash that comes with moving, but it would be an ongoing issue. Again, we are eight people, and so we produce more trash than the average 2.71-person household. We probably produce less per capita, because buying in bulk reduces packaging, but we still produce more volume than a normal-sized family.
When I asked the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services for a second bin, they told me I could rent one at $120 per year.
I understand the reasoning here. I think market-priced trash collection is a great free-market environmentalist idea. If people know they have to pay for the removal of trash, they will find ways to minimize their trash: buy stuff with less packaging, recycle, reuse, buy less stuff, etc.
But making me pay more than a smaller household for trash service violates the county government’s principle of equity.
Consider this from the liberal county government:
“In November 2017, Fairfax County in Virginia passed a far-reaching policy known as ‘One Fairfax,’ requiring that the Board of Supervisors and School Board must ‘consider equity in decision-making and in the development and delivery of future policies, programs, and services.’”
Here’s how “equity” is commonly understood by those who use the word:
That is, those who need more accommodation receive more accommodation, so as to bring about more equal results.
Does Fairfax County think about equity for large families?
CLICK HERE FOR READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
There are all sorts of ways private organizations, especially churches and religious schools, accommodate large families. Regularly we go to family picnics or concerts where there’s a family price equal to about two individual tickets. Likewise, some sports programs try to make practices easier for families by scheduling them next to playgrounds and by the coaches offering kids rides.
Fairfax County, in its public services, apparently doesn’t extend its idea of equity to large families, and so I have to pay for the same amount of per-capita trash hauling that the average household gets for free.