Trash, Don’t Pick It Up»

Accumulation of trash on any premises for more than seven (7) calendar days shall constitute an unsanitary and unhealthy condition if it creates: harbor or concealment (including hiding places for person(s); deposit or accumulation of refuse or trash; harbor for rodents and vermin, or a refuge for snakes, rats or other rodents; noxious or an unpleasant odor; or fire hazard.

– District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Housing Regulation Administration.

The Flophouse was in violation of this ordinance. But.

D.C. never provided us, as it was required to, with recycling cans. As a result, our bottles and cardboard have gone in what we thought were reasonable substitutes: paper grocery bags, for instance, or a milk crate that we found at the nearby charter school. Yet, week in and week out, the recycling people do not collect our recycling. Stuff accumulates. Particularly over the last three weeks, as one of our number recently brought a lot of stuff that came in cardboard boxes into the house, requiring a hefty amount of cardboard to be collected.

Today we got hit with a Notice of Violation that could have left us $1500 (!) poorer. So we did what we needed to do to avoid a fine that we should not, by rights, have to pay: we broke down all that rain-soaked cardboard and gathered all the glass bottles and aluminum cans, and stuffed the whole sordid mess into your standard black garbage bags. That’s right: no recycling from us. We can’t help it if D.C. would rather entrap us than responsibly steward the environment, but we’re not going out like suckers. As Kriston Capps put it, D.C. can snack on ‘em.