Print
Share page with AddThis

Public Notice: Town of Mount Desert – COVID-19 and Trash

Posted on: April 3, 2020 - 3:23pm
No dumpster available, curb side pick -up only

Public Notice: Town of Mount Desert – COVID-19 and Trash

For public and employee health and safety reasons, we removed the garbage dumpsters from the Town of Mount Desert’s (Town) highway garage and the Northeast Harbor marina on April 3, 2020. The dumpsters have been nothing short of disgusting these last couple of weeks. The three at the highway garage were dumped first thing last Sunday morning as scheduled and were overflowing by noon. Despite the signs we have in place, people still put box springs and mattresses, stoves, couches, pallets, you name it, they dump it, in or beside them.

The dumpsters are not for this type of use. The materials just described above need to go to the EMR transfer station in Southwest Harbor. The Town will pay the fee if you take your trash to EMR; telephone 207-244-4347 if you have any questions of them. The dumpsters are for those individuals who missed their regular collection day(s) for household garbage that is typically placed curbside in garbage bags or cans. With our change in our recycling program, some larger recyclable items can be set curbside without being put in a bag or can. Cardboard is one such item for instance.

Birds and raccoons get into the trash, tear open bags or boxes with the resulting litter. Sometimes the litter is handy to the dumpsters; sometimes it gets blown all over the area. Regardless, our staff has to clean it up and people using the dumpsters have to wade through it. In today’s world, this increases public and employee exposure to the COVID-19.

Signs have been put out at both the highway garage and the marina that read:

No dumpsters – public health and safety reasons. Leave nothing here. Doing so violates legal definition of littering.

Please use Town’s curbside collection service or take your garbage to transfer station in SW Harbor on Long Pond Road off Seal Cove Road.

Thank you for your understanding and commitment to helping us keep people healthy and safe. If you have any questions, please contact Public Works Director Tony Smith at 276-5743.