Bismarck, Strangers Will Soon Photograph Your Trash. OK With You?

Pretty please share this story before someone gets shot!

August 23-26, perfect strangers will be out taking photographs of the contents of Bismarck resident's trash bins. Now, before y'all start yelling "Stand Your Ground" and fill these nice folks with hot lead.  They're actually working in conjunction with the City of Bismarck to figure out the garbage needs of the Capital City. Not sure if that qualifies for any back-porch buckshot.

They're not there to gather info about your love of snack cakes (or are they?).

Click here to read the alert on Bismarck ND.gov

Bismarck Public Works Service Operations will begin a garbage collection set-out study August 23-26, to evaluate the volume of materials being set out for collection with garbage and recycling containers each week. This includes extra bags of materials, yard debris, and small bulky items that are set outside of garbage and recycling containers.

Nothing will be removed from the trash.

Y'see the city has partnered with HDR Engineering to perform a set-out study.  They're just trying to figure out how much garbage you "set-out" every week.  It could be garbage be in your trash can, along side the cans, in recycling containers, or snuck into your neighbor bins.

Why is the city being so darn snoopy?

Back in February, the City of Bismarck entered an agreement with HDR Engineering.  Task Order 1 is a study to figure out how much extra garbage is being set-out for collection every week. Total cost of Task Order 1 is not to exceed $131,075. Basically it's a study to figure out what are the best methods, equipment, and management that will be necessary moving forward.

So maybe share this with your hair-trigger acquaintances that may have double barrel issues with someone taking photos of their trash cans. They're not out searching for your DNA.  Or at least probably not..

Here's a link to read Task Order 1 in it's entirety.