Use of the municipal dumpsters has been tightened up, both in timing and in content. Each of the county councillors has been assigned a number of dumpsters for a single week each summer, That week for Jerome Grant’s district, which includes Lochaber, is June 11th to June 17th. Jerome has arranged for us to have two dumpsters for the weekend and one for the rest of the week. During that time they will be picked up when full and returned empty, so there isn’t the great rush that there was in past years to get material to the dumpsters on the weekend.
More importantly, the content of dumpsters has been restricted. Unbeknownst to us, in past years the materials deposited in the dumpsters hadn’t simply been dumped in the landfill. The contents had to be sorted and allocated to the proper disposal site. This sorting process made the cost of the dumpster program prohibitive. Now there is a definite list of acceptable materials. Only the following materials may be placed in the dumpsters: metal, mattresses, furniture, appliances, carpets, toys and sporting goods. This list will be posted on the dumpsters. The following materials are not acceptable: tires, hazardous wastes (e.g. paint or oil), household garbage, recyclables, electronics, leaf & yard waste, building materials and any bagged garbage. To ensure that the municipality is able to continue this valuable program, please adhere to these guidelines.
In past years when the timing and (we felt) the allowable contents of the dumpsters was more flexible, we used to schedule a community roadside/lakeside and hall grounds cleanup for the second or third weekend of May to coincide with dumpsters being placed at the hall. Most of the materials gathered as part of that cleanup program may not be placed in the dumpsters, but should be placed at roadside for the regular weekly garbage collection. We encourage everyone to continue to collect smaller items from along the lakeshore and roadside and put them out with your regular garbage. Larger items like tires, dock materials and such that often end up along the lakeshore or in the lake will have to be handled by other means.