A California high-rise condo association is facing recycling and organic-waste fines ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars each month because residents keep putting garbage and plastic bags in the wrong bins.
A Reddit user said installing cameras has been no more successful than the association's signs, emails, and mailed reminders at changing those costly disposal habits.
Here's what to know
In a Reddit post, a homeowners association member described the challenges facing a building with a few hundred residents. Improper disposal triggers penalties from the building's recycling and organic-waste collectors.
The HOA member is considering a substantial reduction of recycling services, paired with more trash bins, after repeated efforts to fix the problem. While that seems eco-friendly, the original poster said that — given how bad things were — it wouldn't make a difference.
"I'm told all our contaminated recycling and organic waste will be sent to the landfill anyways," the OP revealed.
Several commenters questioned whether cutting services would be legally permissible.
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"Are you legally required to have both? In many places you are, and I'd guess California is one of those places," one commenter wrote. The responses affirmed that they were required unless a jurisdiction received an exemption.
More background
Broken glass and butane-filled bags were among the items the HOA president found while sifting through recycling, according to a reply from the original poster. The reply also speculated that the butane may have come from growing marijuana.
The OP added that replacing vandalized cameras was beyond the association's budget, as was continuous monitoring of every chute.
While it seemed in this case the HOA was trying to boost recycling and eco-friendly behavior at first, that is frequently not the case.
Across the country, associations have been caught blocking money-saving green updates such as rooftop solar panels and native plant lawns. This resource on working with HOAs offers guidance for navigating association rules.
What can be done?
Some users pushed for more actions before eliminating recycling.
"If it's thousands of dollars a month in fines it's worth paying someone to pre-sort and get to the bottom of who is doing this," one wrote. "Between the contents of the trash and cameras."
Facebook posts and complaints within the community were part of one Minneapolis condo's effort to get neighbors to improve their disposal habits, another Reddit user shared. The commenter added that volunteer residents also removed misplaced items from recycling dumpsters to address a similar situation.
Paying the waste collector to sort materials allows residents at one Orange County condominium to use a single container, according to a commenter who lives there.
Another suggestion was to make everyone pay for the problem.
"Send a monthly special assessment to all for the fines," one person advised. "The complaint [means] residents will help find the offenders."
Where can I learn more?
Waste-collection problems have caused headaches in other communities, too.
• In Ontario, a town blamed a new subdivision as a community garbage pile grew for months.
• In Massachusetts, a renter saw recycling bins disappear and learned that the hauler didn't sort waste.
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