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This happens all of the time, but especially around the holidays. The recycling dumpsters become filled to overflow capacity and beyond. Some people drive by and think… someone should do something. That is correct. Here are some things we can all do.
1) If the dumpster is full… don’t fill it up with more stuff or leave it on the ground.
I don’t understand why people choose to just dump their recycling on the ground by the dumpster. The stuff just starts to blow away. And the sight of the mess certainty does not inspire other business owners to want to allow dumpsters on their property. I also feel for the people that then have to try to collect, gather and clean up the wet, disgusting mess that is left outside the dumpsters. During the week between Christmas and New Years I saw Rumpke and the city repeatedly empty the dumpsters and clean up the mess in the rain and cold and muck. Yuck. The overflowing dumpsters and mess would return within hours.
So one answer is to have more dumpsters and empty them more often. That would be great. However, in the meantime and with budgets being what they are each person has to accept personal responsibility to take care of their own mess.
2) When recycling a box – break it down first. That saves a lot of space. Smash, flatten, sit on other items before you dump them, compression does wonders.
3) Take your newspapers to the abrita dumpsters – these are usually nearby and rarely overflowing.
4) Save your aluminum cans for a charity that wants them.
My other mission: There is a building contractor that I have seen dumping building waste in the dumpsters at Indianola Plaza twice in the last two months. I was not quick enough to get his license plate, but I am now ready. I have my “beater” digital camera in my car. I do not plan on doing a Barney Fife style citizens arrest but I can make sure the individual gets a hefty fine with some photographic evidence and a license plate…or at least that is what I tell myself.
Nail-a-dumper!
Thanks, CMH, great post. I don’t know why no one will break down the boxes but I notice all the time and it drives me crazy.
Regarding #4, Cans for Habitat for Humanity is a great way to get rid of your cans and help build homes in the community.
I hardly have time now to start a rant, so I’ll just keep it simple for now and say flatten your boxes. I learned this working as a janitor and you see them doing it in stores. And yes, send the paper separately to paper-only recycling so it doesn’t get mixed up on some belt with all the other materials.
We primarily use the drop-off recyling dumpsters at the Brewery District Kroger and the Weinland Park Kroger, depending on which one we’re going to be closer to when running errands. The overflow at those two place appears to be a weekly problem.
Perhaps if we can pinpoint the busiest locations and submit our concerns to SWACO we can get them to either make more frequent pickups or add more dropoff points. A little over a year ago they added a bunch of new spots. Not sure if any more have been added since then, but perhaps it’s time?
Now that I live in Grandview, I have curbside pickup like a fancy person, but when I was in Vic Village, I used the Goodale bins. Occasionally I would go and they would all be full, but they seem to keep those ones emptied at least fairly regularly, since I rarely couldn’t find room in them (granted, I didn’t go every week). I can’t recall ever seeing a lot of stuff left outside those bins.
I did always keep my paper separate and take it to the Abitibi bin at the American Cancer Society on Michigan. I still do that now, although I use the one at Grandview High. I always wondered about those bins — are they legitimate fundraisers, or are they like some of those sketchy clothes donations bins? And do they benefit the place on whose property they’re located — i.e., the one on Michigan benefits the cancer society?
rumpke has not been on my street in a month. what am i paying them for again?
i normally drop at the beck street school in GV, but i have seen this overflowing many times. last time i dropped at africentric instead. i have also seen that one overflowing on multiple occassions.
can i also ask the world why they put their recyclables in a plastic trash bag to drop them in the dumpster? i’m guessing those bags just end up in the trash.
Quick Correction: Re: Paper Dumpsters; Just Do it – recycle cans
Abitibi (The dumpsters have the dog on them)
Abitibi
And recycling cans for a good cause -
Cans for Habitat
Hungry Woolf and Lizless recycle cans with great abandon. HW makes me stop the car in traffic to get cans – she is that hard core!
Would anyone have a problem with dumpsters that require you to sort your recyclables? In Delaware (the State of) where I used to live, we had self-sorting dumpsters… places for cans, glass (clear, green and brown) plastic, batteries and then big dumpsters for paper. It kept the recycling stations MUCH neater, and I never saw garbage dumped in the recycling station, like I do here. I pretty much sort the paper and the containers anyway, so it never bothered me to go the extra step and self-sort.
Honestly I’m at the point where I’ll probably sign up for curbside pick-up, cause the bins are such a mess.
Curbside is so easy, and you don’t have to have a storage space for recyclables to wait until you make a trip to the bins.
We’ve thought about curbside… but the drop off is still such an easy option for us. Once a bag of recycles are filled we’ll usually take it out and stick it in the trunk of the car so that we don’t have to worry about storing it anywhere and it’s ready to go the very next time we’re out running errands.