TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — With the weekend coming up, maybe you’re planning to clear out some things and take them to recycling. Careless people who treat recycling as a plain old dumping ground have the City of Tucson closing a popular site.
The City of Tucson wants you to recycle but the recycling site at Ward 4 near Pantano and Irvington is going to be out of here—shut down because people can’t live up to the rules.
When we brought our camera to the Ward 4 site, we found people doing the right thing, making sure they were dropping acceptable, recyclable items, and they were making sure they fit in the bins.
But you still saw unacceptable junk other people just dumped there like tires, and trash people couldn’t be bothered to put in the dumpsters.
Don Crow has seen plenty of stuff people just should not leave there.
“Oh, refrigerator, appliances, heavy metal, just whatever they wanted to get rid of, they stack it.”
The mess can blow into the neighborhoods. It’s so bad the City’s decided to close down this site.
Walter Schultz says he’s been sorry to see abuse lead the city to shut down other recycling sites. He says the closures hurt the people who try to recycle the right way.
“But there is a definitely, definitely a need, I don't know. I mean, I can only think of scanning items, you know. I mean, it would take money, obviously, and the city is probably not able to do that, you know.”
Christina Polsgrove of the city’s Environmental Services Department says to avoid overflows, the city clears recycling dumpsters six times a week.
“We're doing it as frequently as we can. So we want just people, you know, follow the guidelines. You know, you recycle the right materials. Don't, don't bag them. Just be respectful of the site and make sure that you're leaving it for other people to use.”
