Too bad, San Diego

Bonnie’s lived by Imperial Beach Boulevard and 9th Street for the last 20 years.

“I had no idea that the [EDCO trash] bins could be replaced free of charge,” she said. “I actually never really thought about asking either, but our bins were so dirty with bent lids and had flies inside whenever opened — it was just gross and this looked like the perfect resolution.”

Bonnie completed the online form on October 11 and she received a response the next day from EDCO with instructions to “leave bins out until 5:00 pm” on her next scheduled pick-up day, October 17.

“I got home that evening and found the new bins waiting at the curb,” she said. “My daughter who lives in IB did the same and got her new bins the following Wednesday on October 24.”

Lori Ann lives in a rental on Imperial Beach Boulevard that came with EDCO bins. “I called them to have them replace a can that was broke on their behalf,” she said. “They just tell you when to leave it out there and they will pick it up [and replace it] on that day.”

“It’s not advertised [that people can get EDCO replacements bins] so people are not going to know about it,” said John Silver. “I used the “chat” option online to ask about getting a new can. They replied that a new can would be delivered on the next two delivery days and to leave them out until 5 pm, because the trash collector isn’t the one exchanging them, it would be a different person.”

Silver is in the Navy and has lived in IB since February 2017. He’s been dealing with a fly-infested trash can for a year, so he sprayed it down with water and bleached it, but that didn’t help and that prompted him to reach out to EDCO. Within a week he had a new trash can and was stoked and posted about his fast EDCO service on Facebook. Most of the people that replied to Silver did not know EDCO had a free-replacement plan; a few took his advice and received their cans promptly.

“My wife was home and chatted with the man [from EDCO] and he told her that we can request to get a new can every four months, free of charge, which was news to us. [He also said] they melt them (old bins) down and make new ones.”

South San Diego, which borders Imperial Beach is serviced by the city of San Diego where the residents and businesses have to pay (most of the time) for their replacement cans because they don’t pay for a trash-collection bill.

“EDCO bills quarterly,” Bonnie said, “our quarterly bill is $87.80 and when we moved in in 1999, it was $45 per quarter.

It includes weekly pick up of all bins (trash/recycle/yard greens). We can also get bulk item pick up such as old mattresses or furniture, once per year at no charge.”