As we launch into the holiday season, it was a little distressing and, well, dumpish (yes, it’s a word) to read the report in last week’s edition about Sweet Home Gleaners’ problems with trash left at their second hand store at 3031 Main St.
It’s actually outrageous.
Anyone who’s walked our local streets or roads knows Sweet Home has a problem with inconsiderate individuals who apparently feel little compunction about tossing a Styrofoam drink cup or candy wrapper out the car window as they drive. We’ve seen the decrepit appliances dumped in local forestlands – or into a stream bed off a country road.
But the Gleaners’ experience takes litter to a new level.
We’re tempted to call it what it is, but we can’t really go there in a family newspaper.
For those who missed the report, here’s the gist: the Sweet Home Gleaners’ second-hand store has been inundated with what can only be termed as garbage, left in the middle of the nights in their parking lot. We’re talking broken appliances, dirty old bedding and mattresses (which Gleaners can’t legally sell anyway) and bags of actual refuse.
Instead of making money, Gleaners has to pay to get rid of this stuff.
Speaking charitably here, it’s possible that somebody might actually think they’re helping the organization, which exists to provide food to low-income people and uses the store to help pay its bills, by “donating” some of this stuff. But the reality is that it does not.
Gleaners isn’t in the recycling business, even if it had the volunteer help to dismantle those decrepit washing machines.
We realize that some might cynically dismiss their actions with some sort of rationale like “beggars can’t be choosers,” but common decency should raise a red flag on the kind of behavior we’ve described.
Frankly, it’s more than insulting, it’s criminal.
People who have the wherewithal to dump their garbage at Gleaners should be good for the cost of taking it to Sweet Home Sanitation’s transfer station – located at 1325 18th Ave. – for those who don’t know. That’s where items that can’t already be deposited in garbage cans should wind up, legally. Anything else is either littering or theft of services, both crimes.
Gleaners is based on community assistance/self-help principles.These folks actually go out and work for their food. They work in the fields to put produce on their tables.
Speaking of community, it’s time for all of us to step up and resist this incredibly selfish, ignorant behavior. If you drive by and see something that doesn’t look right, call the cops.
Some may not be bothered by litter on the side of the road – or in someone else’s parking lot. But those inconsiderate enough to engage in this type of behavior won’t stop there if community members don’t draw the line.
As we enter this season of peace and good will, let’s act like it.