Cameras, citations, and common sense: Burke tightens trash oversight

If you are headed to a Burke County convenience site with trash in your pickup and find the gate closed, think twice before dumping your trash then and there.

County workers can go through your trash, find out who you are, and slap you with a litter citation.

Burke County has six sites where residents can dispose of household waste and recyclable materials for free, and all operate under strict rules about who can dump there, what type of trash or recyclables are accepted, and where it should be placed.

In instances of misuse, Burke County Public Works Director Mark Delehant said individuals can be barred from the site at staff discretion, although he said, “It’s never gotten to that point.”

Burke County Code Zoning Enforcement Officer James Marler said if residents dump trash at a convenience site gate when the site is closed, workers are authorized to go through the trash to find identifying information so Burke County Code Enforcement can issue a civil citation, typically $50.

“If it happens again, I will most likely issue a criminal citation,” Marler said.

In North Carolina, littering is considered a Class Three misdemeanor with fines of up to $1,000.

Marler said he has issued about a half dozen citations in the past six months. If no culprit can be identified from the contents of the trash, Marler has no recourse, he said.

“We get that quite often,” he said.

Another common occurrence is contractors attempting to dump large loads at the convenience sites and being turned away, said Marler.

“That’s definitely a no-go,” he said, adding that most contractors in the area know they can’t take their trash to convenience sites, but there are some who try to get away with it anyway.

Burke County’s N.C. 126 convenience site near Table Rock Middle School will be the final site to get cameras for monitoring dumping activity, said Delehant.

The site upgrade also includes a small building with an office and restroom, built in-house by county workers.

That improvement should make life a little easier for site attendants, who spend much of their day out in the elements running compactors, directing people where to place their trash or recycling, and enforcing the rules.

“They’ve got their rules and things they do their best to enforce,” said Delehant. “I tell them don’t get in any fights with anyone over trash.”

If a dispute does arise, the county can use the cameras to see what happened and take the appropriate action.

Delehant added that he hopes more people will start recycling to keep county costs down.

Since Burke County’s Johns River Waste Management Facility is only a construction and demolition landfill and cannot accept household waste, all trash must be transferred from that facility to the Republic Services Foothills Regional Municipal Solid Waste Landfill in Lenoir, where the county pays to dump it.

Meanwhile, recycling costs substantially less to process, said Delehant.

Convenience sites are located at the following locations:

• 3836 N.C. 18 South, Morganton
• 3251 U.S. 64, Morganton
• 1679 N.C. 126, Morganton
• 8492 N.C. 181, Morganton (Jonas Ridge)
• 2350 U.S. 70, Connelly Springs
• 6135 Rhoney Road, Connelly Springs

Convenience sites take the following items with the exception of Jonas Ridge:

• Aluminum
• #1 and #2 plastics
• Corrugated cardboard
• Mixed paper
• Glass bottles
• Metal items
• Lead acid batteries
• Electronics
• Motor oil and oil filters
• “Rough box” items: Furniture, mixed-material items, outdoor plastic

The Jonas Ridge facility only takes aluminum, mixed paper, #1 and #2 plastics, and metal.

The convenience sites do not take the following items:

• Any commercial waste
• Building materials, construction, demolition, or remodeling debris more than one cubic yard
• Large loads of any type
• Paint in liquid form
• Plastic bags/film
• Compact Fluorescent Lamps and rechargeable household batteries
• Asbestos
• Yard waste
• Tires
• Shingles/roofing materials
• Wooden pallets
• Items containing mercury

Large loads and any other items must be taken to the Johns River facility at 2500 Marsh Trail and dumped for a fee.