I’ve grown tired of seeing discarded furniture on the county right of way, left in front of people’s homes, or just plain dumped in front of wooded lots.
Every time I see one of these broken pieces of furniture, I shake my head in frustration and wonder, “How can we keep this from happening?” As I continue to see these discarded items sit for days and weeks and months on end and continue to grow in numbers I’ve decided that something needs to be done.
The first step is filling out an online service form for the department of public works with Hernando County.
After recently completing a service request, I received a phone call from one of the “right of way” inspectors for the county. They were super positive and the items reported ended up disappearing within a day or so of the reports being completed.
Another request I submitted was for a large amount of trash in a retention pond behind a nearby plaza. I learned through the inspector with the department of public works that the retention pond in question was on private property. The inspector’s recommendation was that it should be reported to code enforcement.
Instead of calling code enforcement I went through a series of steps to locate and contact the management company of the private business that owned the property where the trash was located. It was cleaned up in a matter of just a few days.
I then called code enforcement to see how the process worked to report discarded trash. Through that phone call I learned that “Bulk Waste” on private property would either be the responsibility of the property owner and Republic Services or, where this fails, code enforcement would step in. The person I spoke with recommended that any item that is not discarded on the county right of way and has an obvious attachment to an address should be reported to them (instructions can be found on the code enforcement website.) I left the phone call informed on how to report various types of debris to the proper authorities.
While waiting on the service request forms to be completed and the chairs and couches dumped along side the roadway to be removed I decided to do the only other thing I know how to do… create photographs .
I’m not finished. I’m working on ideas on how to work together with the county and Republic Services to inform the public about how to properly discard large items. Republic Services calls it “Bulk Waste” and there is a way to get it accomplished but you have to take some action - other than walking your unwanted furniture to the end of the street and hoping someone else will handle it.
According to Republic Services;
“Bulk waste includes items that are typically too large to be disposed of in your regular curbside trash container. To help you get rid of these large items, Republic Services offers easy bulk trash pickup for recycling or disposal, so you don't have to haul them to a landfill.
Bulk items typically include:
Couches
Lamps
Rugs
Mattresses
Large Appliances without Freon
Stay tuned. More to come!
