In Mansfield, 497 Spayer Lane is a vacant home that has become a public health and safety concern for residents. A portion of the garage door has been removed and the home is slowly being filled with garbage.
Rick Lewis lives next door and he has deep concerns about the situation. He pointed out that the back yard was filled with hundreds of beer bottles and potato chip bags. Though one might assume the trash came from rebellious youth, Lewis is convinced that neighborhood adults are to blame.
“I know who doesn’t get trash picked up. I see what kind of beer they buy, and then it shows up in the back yard here,” said Lewis. This problem isn’t isolated to Spare Lane. All over the city garbage can be found in vacant homes or lots, allies, and in private dumpsters. According to Councilman Sam Dunn he receives at least five calls a week from constituents complaining about these issues.
Gaylord Rice Jr. of the city’s code enforcement office reports they receive over a hundred complaints per year. The Richland County Health Department logged 840 staff hours devoted to solid waste issues, which amounts to a $28,880 expenditure in the last twelve months.
The garbage problem is unsightly and has a negative impact on community pride, but the concern is more than cosmetic nuisance. Improper disposal of garbage poses public health and safety concerns.
According to Matt Work, Director of Environmental Health at the Richland County Health Department, “This is a basic public health problem, primarily due to flies and rodents. Flies lay eggs in garbage and hatch in a short time.” Flies, cockroaches and rodents all increase with access to more trash and all spread disease. People forget that the common housefly is one of the most dangerous pests. Flies can carry parasitic and bacterial diseases, bacterial pathogens and viruses.
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is to limit the pests’ access to food, water and shelter. In the case of pests trash is all three things,” said Work. “The best way to do that is to put all trash in tightly sealed containers and collect it at the curb once a week.”
Rick Lewis’ main complaints were the smell and the bugs, “On a good hot day when the wind is blowing it’s terrible.”
How does garbage pose a public safety concern?
Tobie Smith, Deputy Police Chief, explained, “I believe in the Broken Windows theory of community policing.” This criminological theory holds that maintaining and monitoring urban environments in a well-ordered condition prevents escalation to more serious crimes. In short, criminals are more likely to commit crime where it is apparent that the community isn’t actively caring for the area. In Mansfield there is sufficient evidence that more crime is occurring in areas with higher rates of litter and dumping.
Many residents believe that trash collection is optional; however City ordinance 977.02 requires all Mansfield residents to arrange for garbage collection. Violations should be reported to the City of Mansfield Code Enforcement Office, or if a public health concern, violations should be reported to the Richland County Health Department. These agencies communicate and work together as needed without difficulty, although resolution of garbage issues does take time, often more than residents anticipate or understand.
Rick Lewis called his city councilman who directed him to call the Code Enforcement Office where he left a message. Eventually he contacted the Health Department, and they did identify the residence as a public health problem and initiated a case through the court system. That was two months ago and Lewis is frustrated. According to Work it can take ninety days or longer to resolve these complaints.
In 1998 when the city ceased garbage collection there were 17 community policing officers and five employees in code enforcement. Today those departments have two employees apiece.
“We just don’t have the staffing to keep up with the problem, “said Smith. City Service Director Lori Cope mentioned that although the city is aware of the problem and concerned, funding a solution is difficult. “Where would the resources come from? We’d have to cut something else in order to fix the problem.” She did mention that the mayor’s administration is exploring the possibility of installing hidden cameras at known dumping sites, but no funding for that solution has been identified yet.
The city of Mansfield has a growing problem with illegal dumping of solid waste and litter. What are possible solutions to this problem? Individuals, non-profits and government all can play a role.
“I start my day picking up trash on my way in to work,” said Councilman San Dunn.
Dunn is one of many who make an individual effort to address the problem. Private citizens and community groups also have made efforts to address the mounting problem. The North End Community Improvement Collaborative (NECIC) schedules regular 60/60 clean up days. 60 residents volunteer 60 minutes to clean an area of concern. The last one exceeded that goal, 100 volunteers arrived and filled two dump trucks, one with garbage and the other with abandoned tires.
These efforts are helpful, but are not sufficient to address the magnitude of the problem.
Richland Source conducted a meta-analysis of the 14 Ohio cities with populations similar [in size] to Mansfield. City officials, politicians and residents were interviewed in addition to collecting and compiling comparative data.
Four cities, Newark, Findlay, Beavercreek and Mansfield, do not have municipal trash collection, but do require residents to make their own arrangements. All of those cities report public health, safety and enforcement problems. Newark is in the process of reinstating municipal pickup.
Cities with municipal pickup report very few instances of these problems. Dublin, Lakewood, Strongsville, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga Falls, Elyria, Euclid, Fairfield, Mentor, and Middletown all have city-wide trash collection. 60% of those cities addressed the issue of funding municipal collection through public-private partnership. Those cities outsource the collection and billing to private contractors which eliminates the financial burden on the city.
Four of the ten cities that provide city-wide collection do not bill residents for garbage pickup. The average monthly cost of garbage collection in the remaining six cities is $13.45. The typical Mansfield resident pays $16.16 per month on average. On the whole municipal pickup has better outcomes at a lower cost to residents and municipalities.
Although municipal pickup is the solution most recommended by public safety and health experts there are other options that could be considered.
One way to minimize some of the public health concerns is to restrict pickup to a single day of the week per identified neighborhood. That approach minimizes the time that trash is in the open and limits spread of disease and other negative outcomes.
Another consideration is to regulate private haulers. Some of the illegal dumping has been traced to haulers that don’t dispose of the trash they collect at an identified solid waste district. If the city licensed and regulated the haulers, residents would know their garbage is disposed of properly and the city could offset some of the costs of enforcement by charging a licensing fee.
