Letter to the editor: Reader hopes city’s recyclers tidier than county’s

To the editor:

I hate to keep bringing this up, but the county’s recycling dumpster was a big mess all weekend.

Is this going to be the norm for the new Perry locations?

This happens on a regular basis at the county site south of Hy-Vee. Stuff blows into Spring Creek to the south and Frog Creek to the west. Being a landowner to the south, I constantly pick up junk that’s wind blown.

Talked to both the county and city about this with no results over the last few years.

I’ve seen people just drive by and toss stuff out their windows. There is some dumping going on farther east of this site, just down the lane that heads back to the bike trail. This is on the newly acquired city property. Most of the junk that ends up in the creeks is plastic and cardboard.

This isn’t what a recycle program should look like. Recycling’s a good thing, but not like this.

I’ve found the parts of the Iowa Code Chapter 455 and the Iowa Administrative Code for the Environmental Protection Commission Chapter 567.106 pertaining to these roll-off bins. Here are the relevant parts from Chapter 567.106.5, called “Citizen convenience center operations.”

106.5(1) Solid waste shall be accepted only from citizens and small businesses residing in the service area designated in 106.4(1)“f.”  Solid waste shall not be accepted from solid waste collection vehicles.

106.5(2) All solid waste received shall be loaded into dumpsters, compactors or roll-off boxes and collected by solid waste collection vehicles. Solid waste shall not be loaded into solid waste transport vehicles.

106.5(3) Dumpsters, compactors and roll-off boxes shall not be allowed to overflow, and solid waste shall be collected as often as necessary to prevent the attraction or harborage of vectors and to prevent a nuisance or public health hazard.

106.5(4) Litter shall be collected as often as necessary to prevent a nuisance or public health hazard.

Didn’t mean to complain, but I felt like it wasn’t getting addressed and thought maybe the media could help.

Andrew Miner
Perry