La Casa Alcaldía in Rincón -Town Hall Building

Something unique about Puerto Rico compared with Colorado (and other places, I presume) is that trash service here is free of charge to all residents! All you need is the correct trash container (in Rincón it is a bright orange zafacón) and they will come and pick it up and dispose of it. No bill, nothing. Free.

We thought that was pretty cool, so on our first days here we went down to the Alcaldía (literally the Mayoral House but would translate better as Town Hall) where we were told to go to set up the service. The clerk told us that they had run out of trash cans and that we would just need to wait until they got some more (about 1- 2 weeks). We waited and just hauled our trash to a local open dumpster although apparently some people just dump organic materials (and some other stuff) into the steep, dense plant covered ravines like the one by our house. But we just waited, and still they didn’t come in.

Someone dumping into the gully

Then we got a tip where for a short time we could get our orange zafacón more easily and so we did. It seems that here in many matters there is the “official” way of doing things and there is the “actual” way that everyone does it. Word of mouth works wonders here. Anyway, ever since then, we have had trash pick-up of our orange can the past two Monday mornings like clock work (they are different days depending on the neighborhood).

But when we started accumulating all these old appliances – turned rat motels, we weren’t sure we could just leave them on the side of the road with the zafacón. In Colorado, trash service only picks up small things that can basically fit into a trash bag. We also weren’t sure if anyone who would like a broken appliance would even see them since we live at the end of a steep calle sin salida (dead end).

So we found out that there is also a recycling center in Rincón (thanks Rosa) that takes big appliances! It is part of the Obras Públicas (Public Works) division alongside the trash service. So we loaded up the pikóp truck with the defunct appliances and found our way across the street from the Econo (grocery store) past the fruit stand toward the High School (Escuela Superior). There on the lefthand side you will see it.

Through the gates in the back there is the Centro de Reciclaje or Recycling Center. We just drove our truck right in and someone helped us take out the old washer and broken refrigerator. Easy as can be.

Where we dropped off our appliances -notice the orange Rincón cans

So now we have free trash service as well as recycling! They even recycle used motor oil there. Now we just need to set up a compost pile for all our gardening needs and we will be set up for our waste!

Since we are starting out from scratch and had no idea what we were doing this was a great find for us and thought it might be useful to share. When you don’t have it, (like hot water) even little things like trash service seem like big deals!

A zafacón at a gas station