DEAR MISS MANNERS: Our weekly garbage collectors frequently allow stray pieces of trash to blow out of the can or recycling bin as it is being emptied into the truck. On windy days, there are pieces of trash blowing around our neighborhood, through the streets and into people’s yards.
In some cases, I can clearly identify some pieces as mine, as they are brightly colored wrappers from ethnic foods I purchase online which are not available locally.
I clean whatever garbage I find in the street, but what is the protocol when I see what is clearly my trash in a neighbor’s yard near their home? I feel odd going into their yard and approaching their house, sometimes going into their bushes to pick up a wrapper I can see poking out, but I also feel odd leaving my trash there. I put my trash in the can at the curb, so what is my role in cleaning it up from a neighbor’s yard?
GENTLE READER: Technically, the garbage became the collector’s responsibility once pickup occurred, but Miss Manners sees your problem.
It is both charming and neighborly of you to skip down the block chasing your colorful wrappers, but you are right to fear that incidental trespassing may be misunderstood: Police have a legal right to cross jurisdictional lines in pursuit of a suspect; trash collectors, official or otherwise, do not.
The solution is to raise the issue with the garbage collectors’ bosses. Ideally, you can do this in a neighborhood group or town hall where you will, simultaneously, be publicly declaring your concern for your neighbors’ clean lawns. After that, when the next big wind occurs, shut the blinds.