(Chelsea Update would like to thank Frank Hammer for the information in this column.)
When the Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority (WWRA) was formed in 1991, the residents of the area were required to wash containers, remove labels and sort each kind of recycling material. The residents did just that and they used the recycling bins scattered within the WWRA district and rarely did they ever put trash into the bins.
These residents participated in the program and recycled with both honesty and integrity. The labels were gone, the containers were rinsed and household trash was not found in the WWRA bins or at the bin sites.
Unfortunately, today the placement of trash in the WWRA bins and around the bin sites has hit epidemic proportions.
How do we now have so many residents that feel they can honestly throw trash where they know they should not be dumping it?
Where is their integrity as well now everyone is paying for their trash removal?
This year, WWRA will have dealt with 150 tons … no typo, TONS of trash at a cost of about $45,000 for disposal. This is 10 times the cost of trash as little as four years ago.
So what are we talking about with trash? Examples include but are not limited to:
Tires Bags of household garbage Toilets
Visqueen Bags of used shoes and clothes Couches and chairs
Dressers Construction waste bubble wrap
Adult diapers Bags of cat litter Carpet
Styrofoam Bags of fireplace ashes Bags of spoiled meat
Suit cases Purses and leather bags Light bulbs
One could attempt to argue that they just did not know the materials were trash but the argument does not hold up when one considers the signage at these bins sites and on the bins.
They know, but they don’t seem to care as long as they think they can get away with it. WWRA has put up some video cameras at our sites and there have been several obvious dumping situations where the individual saw the cameras and figured out a way not to be seen and caught.
So now more cameras are being installed.
Where is the sense of community with these illegal dumpers?
This issue may well be that the community has so many new residents who have no sense of community and care for no one else but themselves.
Honesty can be defined as “freedom from deceit and fraud” both of which are applicable to a person dumping at the WWRA sites.
Integrity can be defined as “adherence to moral and ethical principles” which would preclude dumping trash to let someone else pay for it.
WWRA has a $500 reward for the identification and successful prosecution of anyone dumping at our bin sites. I am surprised that no one has attempted to collect the reward. If you have witnessed dumping and not done anything about it, your integrity is in question as well – even if you would never personally dump trash at our sites.
I am really sorry to hear this. I don’t know how people
can be so stupid or uncaring.
Some of the items on the list would not be refused at Recycle Ann Arbor. They have more resources for disposing of some of the articles there. Ann Arbor is not that far away and it would be much more responsible to take the items there.
As a Sylvan township resident, I voluntarily paid the WWRA fee. Many times I have removed obvious bags of household trash from the recycling bins and disposed of it. Thank you, Frank Hammer for writing this column.