Rude people, long lines ‘overwhelm’ Mecklenburg recycling centers during coronavirus
Workers at Mecklenburg County’s four recycling centers have been overwhelmed by long lines and rude people since government stay-at-home coronavirus orders also created cabin fever, county officials said Tuesday.
Now temporarily home-bound, people are cleaning out their houses and taking all their junk to the full-service centers. But only certain items are allowed, officials said.
People are delaying workers at the centers by dropping off such non-recyclables as golf clubs, silverware, microwaves, wicker baskets, logs, rose bushes and clothes, Jeff Smithberger, director of the county’s solid waste management program, told The Charlotte Observer Tuesday.
A driver in a pickup truck with Maryland plates cursed repeatedly and tried to fight a security guard at one of the centers on Monday when the guard told her out-of county residents weren’t allowed, let alone from other states, Smithberger said.
Only aluminum cans, bi-metal cans, paper, glass bottles, cardboard and plastic bottles with necks can be placed into the recycling bins and at the county’s recycling centers, officials said.
While Mecklenburg County is under a stay at home order, the public should visit one of the county’s full service centers only “if it is absolutely essential,” Smithberger said in an earlier news release.
“For the sake of our front line workers, please think about whether your trip to drop off trash or yard waste is essential,” Smithberger said in the release.
“If you do come out, please take precautions like wearing gloves or masks that follow the Public Health and CDC guidelines.”
Temporary yard waste pickup ban
He issued the plea after what can only be described as a debacle at the centers on Monday.
Each center saw at least 1,000 visitors, compared with 350 on a regular Monday, Smithberger said.
“They get frustrated,” he said of some drivers. “They’re upset.”
The centers allow only six types of recyclables.
“Improper recycling is causing lots of problems in sorting,” county officials said in a statement. “Sorting is done mostly by people. Actions by the public can directly affect the health and safety of those sorters and other solid waste workers.”
Some residents, Smithberger said, may have grown impatient with the yard waste collecting outside their homes since Charlotte’s temporary ban on curbside pickup of the waste. The ban is to protect workers during the pandemic, officials said.
The county recycling centers have always welcomed such yard waste, Smithberger said, just not with so many people all at once descending on them.
In their news release, county officials urged residents to “practice grass-recycling at home and not bag grass. For other yard waste, two 32-gallon size bags are no charge, and if you deliver more, fees range from $8 for a pickup truck load to larger loads of $27 per ton.”
Some residents, meanwhile, have taken mounds of clothes they would normally have dropped off at now-temporarily closed Goodwill and Salvation Amy drop-off locations, Smithberger said.
Mecklenburg County residents can find more information to recycle right and yard waste disposal on WipeOutWaste.com. They can read it or watch videos.
Officials also cautioned in the release that “due to COVID-19, recyclables originating from quarantined homes should be placed in the garbage, not in the recycling containers, until the home is no longer quarantined. Double bag trash items that are originating from quarantined homes, or other sources where people are sick.”
The full service recycling centers will be closed for the holiday weekend Friday, April 10, through Sunday, April 12.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 5:22 PM.