The message isn’t getting through and the cost could be loss of a service.
Sorrento residents could lose their recycling bin after someone dumped several bags of drywall and extra bags in and beside the Sorrento recycling bin recently.
“We’re providing a community service,” says Carmen Fennel, Columbia Shuswap Regional District waste reduction facilitator, of longtime illegal dumping issues at the site. “The community requested a recycle bin, but if it continues to be abused, we will have no choice but to remove it.”
That happened for several months in 2010 when the caretaker quit over continuing problems of large quantities of non-recyclable material being dumped there.
Fennell says CSRD then had a difficult time finding a new contractor to manage the site.
“The caretaker’s job is to ensure the site is properly maintained,” says Fennell, noting items that cannot be recycled are hauled to the landfill, at the caretaker’s expense. “They have to clean it up, haul it and pay the tipping fees at the landfill site.”
Current contractor Sheila Cook was angry when she arrived at the site to discover the construction waste filled the bin and that others who arrived at the site had simply dumped their recycling items on the adjacent ground.
Cook told CSRD officials she expects the person dropping off the drywall was simply trying to escape paying the tipping fees at the landfill site.
“It cost us a lot of money to get rid of it,” she says.
The Sorrento site is popular and the bin is emptied about three times a week. But, says Fennell, of all the CSRD recycle bin sites, Sorrento has historically been the most difficult to maintain due to illegal dumping.
Caretaker contractors are required to do site visits once every day, but Cook and her family have to go to the Sorrento bin three times a day, every day.
“We’ve had things left there like a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, a water cooler and a TV,” says Cook. “The community lost the bin once and there was such an uproar they brought it back, but the same thing is happening.”
Fennell reminds residents that many items such as small appliances and electronics can be dropped off free of charge at Bill’s Bottle Depot in Salmon Arm during business hours.
“Leaving them anywhere else is illegal dumping and an added burden on the Cooks,” she says, noting the regional district does have provisions for fines up to $200. “I hope it doesn’t come to the point where we have to give out fines or take the bin away permanently, but if those few people who are dumping their garbage continue to act irresponsibly, we won’t have any choice.”
