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Recycling Changes Likely Coming As Illegal Dumping Continues At Orleans Drop-Off Site

August 09, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Orleans)– Issues with illegal dumping continue at a recycling drop-off site in Orleans. The city operates the site and receives a subsidy from Dickinson county in exchange for allowing residents from unincorporated areas to use it. Kim Wermersen represents the board of supervisors on the Dickinson County Recycling Commission…

“I went up there just the other day and there’s mattresses sitting by the collection areas. I mean people are just abusing the recycling that’s going on. So we what we have to take a look at as a commission is where do we go in the future with recycling. The report that came back from the DNR is the most important thing cities or anyone can do is curbside pickup, because it allows folks, everybody, to have recycling right at their home. The challenge is some of these small businesses who don’t want to get bins and have a lot of cardboard, because I don’t know about you, folks that have anything delivered to their homes it’s cardboard. We all deal with it. Where to go with that? It’s just not fair to Orleans to be fighting that battle.”

Wermersen says the Recycling Commission plans to come up with some changes…

“So we’re going to continue to look. We’ve given ourselves up until December to come up with a plan that we are going to really take a direction the entire county can get behind. We’re an unusual county because it’s not just the residents here. We have thousands of people come in in the summer and either stay at places or some of those other things and apartment buildings, some of these other places, may not have to comply the same way as some of the other areas. So we’re going to take a look at all of that so we can have a really good plan going forward.”

Wermersen gave the update at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

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