Marblehead recycling board: No fines for pickers

MARBLEHEAD – Unlike some communities, Marblehead won’t be fining residents for picking returnable cans and bottles out of curbside recycling bins.The Recycling Committee discussed that possibility last week and took no action.Returnable cans and bottles bring a deposit of 5 cents each. Some residents discard them in separate paper bags, while others put them out in their recycling bins.”There are two people from town doing it (picking),” Director of Public Health Wayne Attridge told the committee, a subcommittee of the Board of Health.”There used to be three and one was making a mess. I caught up with him and warned him that people were complaining. He said he’d be more careful, and he told me he’d been unemployed for six months and he had three kids and needed to put food on the table.”Attridge’s anecdote elicited some sympathy.”If people are doing that for five cents a can, more power to them,” said one committee member.”I don’t think (picking)’s a problem,” Attridge said. “Bottles and cans don’t bring in much revenue.” As a comparison, he noted that youth organizations used to take newspapers from curbside recycling for their paper drives, possibly due to a misunderstanding.