Rant: Roadside Dumping
Here’s a sign of spring that doesn’t make me happy. I live on a rural dirt road, part of which goes along the CMP right of way. It seems to be a favorite place for people to dump refuse. Over the years I have found gas tanks, tires, household furniture, household trash, paint cans, clothing, two deer carcasses (and not in hunting season), and countless bottles and cans. In a recent walk I spotted a sewing machine, a smashed up television, a sofa, an unidentified piece of furniture and giant pieces of styrofoam.
I know I’m always telling people here at the blog to stay calm and be reasonable, but this makes me FURIOUS. Who does this? And why? Is it the cost of dumping it legally? Or are they just plain lazy and ignorant?
Now I’ve had my rant. Has anyone out there figured out a way to discourage this in your neighborhood? What can we do as a community to discourage this?
Reminder: The Conservation Commission’s Earth Day Adopt a Road Cleanup is coming up on April 19.
Tags: environment
March 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Some people can’t afford to pay the fees the dump charges and so that’s how there going to get rid of junk
March 27th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Molly,
I understand your frustration. Our ATV Club does a trash cleanup at the town beach in Berwick every spring. It is amazing the stuff that is out there we can’t possibly get it all. I’m talking huge truckloadds and piles here. It’s especially disheartening to go out there a month later and see it trashed again. I think Transfer Station hassles and fees have a lot to do with it, but there is certainly a class of citizen out there that is just plain lazy, ignorant or both… You can always tell when they raise a fee on a certain item, because the suddenly start showing up in the woods, i.e. tires, propane tanks, furniture and most recently electronics. If you find stuff that may have identifying marks on/in it (like a trash bag with junk mail in it) the police are very good about charging these idiots with illegal dumping.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
In case anyone was curious, the town’s website does have the transfer station fee schedule here http://www.southberwickmaine.org/Public_Documents/SouthBerwickME_DPW/Fee%20Schedule%204_01_06.pdf
Note that it is woefully out of date (4/06). My experience, however, has been that the fee schedule is not always enforced to the fullest, especially if you are not a frequent bringer of hazardous or bulky items. My last piece of old computer equipment (a dead modem) they took for no fee. Also note that expired propane tanks (BBQ grill size) they take free all the time. I suspect they trade those in to BlueRhino to be recertified and reused.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I have the latest version of the fee schedule here somewhere. I don’t think the fees are unreasonable, I think people are just too lazy to seperate things.
The reality is, the old days are over and we’re paying to get rid of stuff one way or another. I’d rather the users pay, not the taxpayers. If you keep up with it, seperating and recycling is no big deal. The hassle is the transfer station itself, it can be a nighmare on a busy day.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I agree the transfer station can be a hassle on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, most of us work 9-5 M-F and can’t make it there on Wednesday or Friday when the place is usually desserted (or is that deserted?). The recent traffic pattern change has helped a little bit, but short of being able to move the facility somewhere larger, I don’t see many routes for improving the process of trash removal, other than for all of us to adopt the first “R” of the recycling creed: Reduce. Then maybe we don’t have to go as often.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
If there is any beauty in the act of “bulk littering” like this it’s that the people who do it are more often than not COMPLETELY BRAIN DEAD. (is name calling allowed in a case like this?) I too am bothered by this disgusting act and have taken steps in the past to see that the morons (oops…there I go again) doing it are busted…if possible for their crime. Often times you can become a detective and pick through the stuff until you find something with a name or other identifying information on it. For example, I was exploring the very dirt road on the CMP right of way last summer mentioned above and saw 2-3 bags of trash on the ground…boy I was mad cuz this was a nice place…I got out and picked through the trash until I found MULTIPLE pieces of paper with the offenders name and address on it…I think one was an old Maine auto registration…brilliant!…don’t forget…these people are MORONS (oops…I’m gonna get banned) and don’t have the foresight to keep their personal information separate when they’re throwing stuff away. The documents were delivered to the SoBo Police who were appreciative of my discovery…I know…this won’t always work but it’s worth a try! One more story…many years ago I hunted down a high schooler who had a BIG party and then dumped his BIG pile of empties in the woods behind my Grandfather’s house…too bad he used one of his mothers monogrammed towels as a Zamboni after the last guest left. I was able to figure out who he was and locate his house on a Sunday afternoon…boy was he sad when I delivered the bags of bottles and towel back to his house and dropped them off in the driveway while Mommy & Daddy were home! (This kid is probably not a moron anymore but he was that weekend!)
March 27th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The fees are expensive. And to be honest, tossing that stuff in the woods takes no less effort than going to the dump, maybe more even. So this is not about laziness. Although it may not seem like much to some, for others it is a burden. I for one have things I’ve chosen to keep on hand because I can’t see spending the money it costs to properly dispose of them. Especially with the cost of gas, heating oil, food, and the collapsing housing market putting many families in real hardship situations. When those things are taken into consideration, every dollar counts. I was being charged 10 dollars to get rid of an old(Small) printer. I need the ten more than I need the space in my house so I still have the broken printer. Some people choose to dump on the side of the road, and that also makes me furious. But with the taxes we pay, and the increases coming, it should not be costing unless there is an excessive amount of this kind of trash. Just my opinion
March 27th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Mr. Ridler–I have been out with rubber gloves going through garbage to look for identifying information. Kind of like CSI. It is amazing that the dumpers don’t even think to remove their personal mail. The police have always responded but have also said that there is not much they can do. (p.s. your name calling is nothing compared to what I’ve said when I’m pawing through someone else’s garbage.)
Mike- I do understand that it can be a hardship to pay for dumping but why throw it in a lovely rural place, or anywhere for that matter. I have a bunch of weird stuff in my cellar that I’m not sure what to do with and it sounds like you have some too. I would never dream of throwing it somewhere on the side of the road. Part of it is that we have such a throw-away culture. A printer is a good example-it costs more to fix a broken one than to buy a new one. And a printer won’t work with a computer with a newer operating system so we end up buying a new one every few years. Also, they are manufactured in places where people get payed nothing so they can be sold for a low price, which doesn’t include the cost of disposal. We consumers get to pay for disposal and then we go buy another that is obsolete in a few years that we have to pay to dispose of–the cycle is never ending.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hi Molly, one thing not considered by the dumpers… someone owns the property they are dumping on! Most of these folks would not consider dumping their trash in their neighbor’s yard, yet they have little thought for dumping at the edge of a road where they do not think they’ll get caught. People wonder why landowners post their properties against trespassing! The tradition of public use of private property has its basis in people treating another’s land with the same respect they give their own. When people buy things, they need to think of how they will care for them and how they will dispose of them. Solid waste disposal is a major component of the municipal budget. Our transfer station personel have been working hard to increase the revenue from recycling to offset other disposal fees. There is a balance. The fees reflect disposal costs. It costs money for the town to collect, handle, then transport tires,computerparts, etc. to the recycling plant. Should those who produce the waste pay their share for disposing of it?
March 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am
We moved here recently from a town in NH. I think unfortunately, this has
become a societal problem for all of the reasons folks have mentioned.
I used to live off a dirt road that was traveled to avoid Rt. 4 and that road
was used not only used by folks that lived on it and off of it to get to all other locations, but by (hunters - I’m assuming that is why the deer carcasses, teens - the large amounts of beer empties and then people just dumping things like mattresses, sofa cushions, not to mention way to many DD coffee cups.) Just about everytime my son and I would go for a walk we would bring a trash bag and pick up some of the items, but it became so maddening that I have to admit I would go for a walk with the dog and try to get beyond it, since it seems to be one of those things that is out of my control.
I’m sad to hear that it happens here as well. Maybe putting some information up at the recycling center and at the town hall about places that will take electronics for no charge (they are worth money now to many!) will help keep them off the side of the road and out of the woods!
March 28th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Mike,
Unfortunately, due to the recycling laws ect… even small printers can not go in to landfill.
THis means the town has to pay to dispose of it.
If they don’t collect the money formt he person disposing of it, then they have to (dare I say it) raise taxes to compensate for the extra cost.
I don’t know if the fee they cahrge is in line with what it cost them to dispose of it, but there may be another way to go about it.
I recently read an article about a company on Pease that is taking in items like your printer, and fully recycling them.
Maybe some one in Public Works, (once we have a new director that is) could contact this company, and find out if they pay for this stuff.
That would solve two problems. Getting rid of the stuff in a way that really recylces, and possibly getting a little something for the town. Even if they don’t pay for the stuff, it may be cheaper because it wouldn’t need to be shipped so far.
From what I understand, most of this stuff is going to a special landfill, which is one reason it costs so much.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Molly…don’t shutdown this blog too soon…I predict a very large increase in posts shortly after January 1, 2009!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Once the offender’s name is discovered, is it illegal to relocate said pile of trash from the woods back to the former owner’s front yard?
April 8th, 2008 at 12:09 am
I wouldn’t think so… They’d still be the owner and you’d just be returning their lost property…you’d be a good samaritan in my book and GS’s are protected by law I think…if it were illegal…that’d be silmilar to getting an open container ticket for drinking an O’Douls in public I’d say…I don’t think there are any police officers out there who would bother you or secondarily judges who would waste their time with it if it did come up. They may recommend you don’t do it for your own safety though…
April 8th, 2008 at 7:47 am
with all this said, let’s go out on April 19th and clean up our roads of all this roadside trash putting aside the anger we feel about, as has been said, those morons,
Roadside cleanup sponsored by The So Berwick Conservation Commission
Let’s be proud of our town.