City works to educate people on prohibited items in Worland dumpsters

WORLAND – The adoption of a tipping fee at the county’s landfill may have led to an increase in residents throwing away prohibited items in the city of Worland dumpsters.

Worland Superintendent of Public Works Brian Burky said since the fee was adopted in September he’s witnessed an increase in prohibited items including couches, mattresses, construction debris and mostly surprising, an old, rusted 50-gallon water heater.

Burky said public education is important and said, “Perhaps people don’t understand, but the trucks pick up the dumpster, they dump it upside-down and then it gets compacted … We can’t compact a couch.”

Burky added the unwanted items are “affecting our cost to operate effectively … You have one person driving the truck and they can’t lift a couch by themselves and they have to call someone … to help pull whatever is in the trash, and it slows everyone down.”

City of Worland Street Supervisor Jeff Taylor agreed and said residents throwing away trash that’s supposed to be taken to the landfill is done at random times, but every time something comes up “it takes 20 minutes and he has to pull a guy off a job to get things done.”

Burky added there is construction debris in dumpsters on the edge of town and it concerns him because “our residents are possibly funding the disposal of non-residents trash.”

The tipping fee, adopted on Sept. 1, 2015, and Commission Chair Aaron Anderson said in an August interview the fee schedule is the result of not having enough money to operate the landfill.

To leave trash at the landfill, Washakie County residents will be charged $15 per cubic yard for general waste and non-residents will be charged $36.50 per cubic yard.

“There have been a handful of calls to the city about people expressing concern for the cost of disposing garbage. We looked into the possibility of some kind of a sliding scale rate and it’s a very tough thing to implement because … verification,” Burky said.

What’s allowed

Burky said general everyday waste trash is allowed.

What’s not allowed

Scrap metal including vehicle body parts, sod, dirt, furniture, appliances, mattress/ box springs, cement/ concrete, biohazardous waste, rocks, carpet, construction/ demolition, scrap lumber, hot ashes, liquid waste and dead animals or carcasses are prohibited in city dumpsters according to stickers placed on dumpsters.

What’s next

To move forward, Burky said public education is important and said there is talk of revamping the stickers on city dumpsters saying what’s allowed and what’s not allowed, and said hopefully in the future the landfill and city can coordinate a free day where to the city can help transport trash to the county landfill.

“There are just certain things that go into a dumpster and (certain things) people have to take out to the landfill,” Burky said.