Interesting - town sewage but no town water?! Most places I've lived, you may get water, but it's the sewage you're likely to have to handle yourself! (ie: septic) Toronto still has a few areas in the older sections of downtown with unmetered water and they pay water and sewage based on flat rates calculated on the basis of the number of rooms, basins, toilets, bath tubs, showers, washing machines and laundry tubs. Ok if you're living in an old house with only one bathroom or something, but it gets really expensive in a newer house with multiple bathrooms. I'm very glad we're metered!! By my rough calculations we'd pay at least twice what we're paying now if the water was unmetered.
Private hauling of trash can be a big mess (no pun intended) if you ask me. The profit motive and the environmental concerns don't always coincide.
Nevertheless, I'm surprised that in this day and age, your town hasn't imposed a more eco-friendly fee structure on your hauler. Of course, who knows what palms have been greased...
And in some places, the town doesn't appear to be involved at all - it's a field day (for the haulers). A friend of mine with a house in Cotuit, MA last year had THREE different haulers going up and down her very short lane on three different days as the residents all had different haulers. One of them went out of business over the winter, so it's now down to two.
