Local recyclers not grasping the point
What is recycling if not a statement of ecological responsibility? Yet from my house, located across from the “temporary” recycling center, it’s clear that neither Hillsboro city officials nor the residents who use the center understand the cultural responsibilities of recycling.
Your trash should not be my trash, and since I have to clean up after you daily, you may as well throw your “recyclables” in the garbage and let the city haul it away.
I should not have to pick up after you and neither should other residents on the north end of Hillsboro. You’re not contributing to a better ecosystem. You are causing other residents a lot of problems.
You leave the recycling bins open, or worse, you just stack your trash alongside the bin when it’s full.
I challenged some of the recyclers to close the bins after disposal. Their comments are either rude or cliches like, “The bin was already open when I got here.” You must know what happens when the spring wind blows as it has this year.
The original recycling center was located beneath the old water tower. City officials moved the recycling center to its temporary location during the reclamation project. Now that the old water tower project is complete, city officials make excuses for not moving the center back where at least there are fences to catch the refuse the shoddy recyclers cause.
On one occasion, and to their credit, the city sent a worker out to clean up. But to be effective, the process of keeping up with the trashy recyclers is daily maintenance.
In Hillsboro, recycling is just another mess for other residents to clean up and all the talk about curb side recycling is another kind of waste. Recycling is a cultural concept that Hillsboro residents and city officials just don’t grasp.
Stan Thiessen
Hillsboro
