SPANISH FORT – City officials plan to use police and other methods to stop the abuse of recyclable drop-off services in Spanish Fort.
Mayor Mike McMillan said at a City Council work session Monday, July 6, that some people are not following the municipal rules at the site and the problem is getting out of hand. He said Police Chief John Barber and other officials will be working to stop the abuse.
“People just putting things on the ground,” McMillan said. “I have asked the chief and IT folks to help us with this problem. We’ve tried to be very patient with the whole project and it’s just becoming more than we can handle and it certainly is an eyesore out there. There’s no doubt and it’s bad reflection of our city. So, we are perhaps looking at putting some items out there to help us identify individuals that may be doing it and maybe have to write some tickets to get people’s belief in what we’re saying.”
Councilman Carl Gustafson said one constituent told him that the bin is often full when he comes.
“The gentleman I spoke with, he knew there was probably some abuse going on,” Gustafson said. “He said we’re seeing stuff just piled up on the ground. He said he’s trying to recycle and every time he goes, it’s always full.”
McMillan said Wastepro, the company that collects garbage and recyclable materials in Spanish Fort, collects the recyclables several times a week.
“I don’t know what else to do, because we don’t have room for more dumpsters,” McMillan said. “They dump them every day. This is a problem across the county. Not just Spanish Fort, we’ve talked with the county. If you look at any of their other recycling areas, they’re having the same issue.”
Councilman J.R. Smith said many people using the dumpster do not crush or break down large cardboard boxes, which soon fills the container.
“There’s a lot of businesses that take all their boxes and they’re working locally, businesses with storefronts and people that work from home and they know when it’s dumped and they run up there and take all their boxes and chunk them in there and fill the whole dumpster up with a handful of boxes because they’re too busy to break down the boxes,” Smith said. “If all them were broken down, we wouldn’t have to dump the dumpsters twice a week and we’d have plenty of room.”
Councilwoman Mary Brabner said the city could also remind residents that another recycling container is available at the Five Rivers Resource Center on the Causeway
