Saint John recycling depot overrun by illegal dumping

Lansdowne Plaza in Saint John's north endhasbecome overrun by garbage and inappropriate items.

Lansdowne Plaza isthe only depot thatresidents in the city's north end have to take their plastics, cardboard and paper.

The problem is people are leaving more thanjust recyclablematerials at the site

Residents saiditems such as paint cans, catlitter and diapers can be often foundat the recycling depot.

But StephaneThibodeau, arecycling truck driver, said he even found adead cat dumped into a blue bin.

"It could be education [on bin use], but a lot of people just don't care," said Thibodeau.

"If nobody sees them, they get away with it and they drive awayand it's out of sight, out of mind."

William Lindsay, a local resident, said he doesn't mind the recycling program, but that people should be held accountable for illegal dumping.

"It says right on [the bins]what to put in them," said Lindsay.

"They could put a camera there. They would catch who's doing the wrong thing."

A common complaint is that the bins across the city are sometimes over-packed,making proper disposal difficult.

"The big challenge for us is illegal dumping," said MarcMacLeod, the manager of Fundy Region Solid Waste.

"We have a truck dedicated to just cleaning those bins every day of the week and it routinely brings in anywhere from half to a full tonof material every day of people discarding stuff."

MacLeod addedthe overflow puts the recycling depots at risk, especially since the commission doesn't own the property the blue bins are located on.

"If we didn't clean them, people would boot us off their sites," he said.