Trash, treasure and trouble

A long-standing local tradition will come to an end July 1 with the banning of scavenging at the Flathead County Landfill and the county’s garbage drop-off site in Columbia Falls.

“Dumpster diving” no longer will be allowed at those two locations under a new mandate from the Flathead County Solid Waste District Board.

Eventually people will be prohibited from sorting through trash at all the county’s garbage sites, although the ban only is effect initially at the two locations where the county has workers to monitor the new rule.

There are plenty of good reasons the county is cracking down on Dumpster diving: safety and liability issues, health concerns, worries about privacy breaches.

That said, the county’s move still is largely in response to an imaginary liability. No one’s been hurt yet, and the county hasn’t been dragged into court repeatedly by injured green-box divers seeking government compensation.

The county, it seems, has come up with a solution to a problem that really doesn’t exist.

And that’s too bad. Because while we sympathize with the motives of the the local government authorities who want to avoid problems in the future, we also regret the fact that the useful process of ad hoc recycling will effectively come to an end as a result.

Certainly, the scavenging prohibition will not be welcomed by those people who either as a hobby or for economic reasons find treasure in other people’s trash.

In a perfect world, of course, all of us would properly recycle those things that still have value. There are many recycling options available in the Flathead Valley, including the thrift stores which take quality used merchandise for resale.

But the reality is that most of us throw away plenty of perfectly good stuff. It’s a shame to see that go to waste.

Currently, lots of folks leave their more valuable discards next to the green boxes where the dedicated divers can claim them. Too bad that cannot be formalized under the new policy.

It would be nice if our local disposal sites had “take it or leave it” areas set aside where worthy recyclables could be claimed, as other places do. We understand the difficulty of such a policy, but wonder if it should be considered as an alternative at some point.