The recycling bin that is now set up at the city maintenance building in east Albany, although an asset to many who recycle their products for environmental purposes, continues to have problems with illegal items that are being dumped in and around the trailer.

City officials are again reminding residents that only recyclable products are legally allowed to be placed in the bins and routine household trash, furniture and so forth are not allowed–legally.

According to Jeff Brown with the Albany street department, who helps maintain the recycle bin and haul its contents to the Pulaski County Recycling Center in Somerset, dumping of non-recyclable products continue to be put in and around the bins.

Most recently is the case of someone, apparently late at night or early morning hours, left a couch there.

Brown said the recycle bin has clearly marked in large red letters items that cannot be dumped there–glass, garbage and liquid. However, common sense is that items like household garbage and furniture items cannot be recycled.

The only legal items allowed to be put in the bins is paper of any kind (newspapers, magazines, etc.), cardboard and plastics.

Brown noted the reason that the recycle bin had been moved from the IGA parking lot in the first place was because people were placing items in and around the bin that were not permissible, even such things as old mattresses. The city agreed to allow the bins to be moved to the city owned maintenance site and continue to allow persons to get rid of their products that can be recycled.

The trailer is hauled to the recycling center in Somerset about once per week, depending on the amount of items it contains. Apparently, the city and county has agreed to share in the times each road department hauls the bin to the recycling facility.

Brown also said that if one area of the bin is full of a certain recyclable product, people can still put another product in another bin, since each are separated anyway at the recycling center.

He continued that most of the non-permissible items, such as trash and furniture, are dumped at the site late at night, but added no one has actually been “caught in the act.”

Since the recycle bin is stipulated for recycled products only on city property, anyone caught putting trash, furniture or other items there could be subject to illegal littering and face fines. Fines for littering, upon conviction, could result in up to $500 in fines for each occurrence.