Dear Citizens of Kent County,

What will it take to get you to put your recycle items into the proper dumpster at the North Kent Transfer Station on 10 Mile Rd? There is a Joni Mitchell song called “The Big Yellow Taxi” and in that song there is part of a lyric which says, “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” What would the citizens of Kent County do if the recycling dumpsters were taken away? Can Rockford landfill handle more unnecessary items? I see people throwing cardboard into plastic/metal/glass/paper dumpsters. I see unnecessary trash/garbage in these dumpsters. I see large black plastic garbage bags filled with who knows what in the dumpster. Empty the bags. Reuse the bags. The recycling personnel have no use for them. The bags just get tossed in the landfill. I was told by the person who runs the scales that if a dumpster is mostly filled with unnecessary items, the whole dumpster is dumped in the landfill. 

Citizens of Kent County, stop abusing the system. Those of us who are 70 years of age or younger wouldn’t handle a depression or a situation like WWII where people had to reuse and recycle. We have this mentality of just throwing things out. “Out of sight out of mind”—is that the thinking of those who abuse the system? I would like to see the persons who abuse the system fined. But it would be impossible. Take the time and sort out what you have and put it in the right dumpster! You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Lenn Perry

Kent County Citizen