Dive summary:
- Residents of Presque Isle, Maine are blaming a new statewide move to limit the amount of waste going into the landfills for the sudden increase in trash being left beside the road.
- The new "pay as you throw” method of trash disposal provides residents with special trash bags that are the only bag that will be accepted by the haulers, but what doesn’t fit in the bags sometimes ends up on the side of the road or other deserted areas.
- The bags include the price of collection and disposal and run from $8.50 to $16.50 for packets of five 15 or 30 gallon bags.
From the article:
“It is totally disgusting,” said Donna Raymond, an 18-year resident of the Parsons Road in Presque Isle, a 10-mile stretch of road between the city and Washburn that seems particularly popular for trash tossers.
“It’s not just a can here or a bottle there,” Raymond said. “It’s full bags of used diapers, cereal boxes and cans [and] I can definitely say it coincided with pay-as-you-throw.”
Raymond is not the only one who has noticed an increase in roadside trash.
“I have seen it, but no one has called to complain,” said Roy Guidry, police chief in neighboring Washburn. “We did have some issues with people using store dumpsters in town, but not anymore.” ...
