I have an apartment where the dumpster is a car's drive away, and taking trash down involves 4 staircases. What is the best way to ameliorate this situation?

In my experience, about five or six parking meters.

I'm guessing they live in a large sprawling suburban apartment complex whose trash facilities were designed to be out of the way and unobtrusive rather than functional and convenient.

My last apartment was in a place kind of like that. It sat on a lot that was probably about eight city blocks. For the entire complex they had eight dumpsters in four trash enclosures around the perimeter, two of which were toward the front of the complex, and the other two toward the middle. If you lived at the back of the complex you'd have to carry your trash for at least a block and a half to dispose of it. It wasn't uncommon to see people driving to the trash enclosure with bags of trash balanced on their car's trunk lid.

Am American and there's not enough context to know. I'm guessing OP lives in a city, and is using "a car's drive" to mean any distance that he doesn't want to drag trash to. Anything longer than a city block, maybe?

I give op props, because I refuse to live anywhere that doesn't have an in-unit washer/dryer and dishwasher, much less a place that has no elevator and no trash shoot. Fuuuuck that.

It's when you are speeding down the highway and huck bags of garbage out your window, then you drive the car away. It's the most economical way to dispose of waste because it doesn't cost anything or end up in a landfill.

I guess, just a tad too long for an easy walk.

One American football field