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This article was published 13 year(s) and 3 month(s) ago

Lynn DPW associate chief zeroes in on Union Street trash violations

aparcher

April 16, 2012 by aparcher

LYNN – Getting Lynn businesses to follow recycling and trash rules is not an easy job, and it’s made even more difficult by the many languages and cultures that make up the city’s business community, said Manny Alcantara, the associate commissioner for the city’s department of public works.From illegal dumping to not recycling to breaking weight and container limits, the numerous violations Alcantara said he sees from businesses and households every week cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.”They (are) sneaking the trash for you and I, the taxpayers, to pay for it,” Alcantara said this week inside his DPW office.He has zeroed in on Union Street businesses for the past month as a microcosm of what he says is a greater problem.Alcantara said he found 39 businesses violating the city’s garbage rules on one day in March.Many of them were not recycling, despite a city rule that says households and businesses that use city trash services must do so, Alcantara said.Others put trash out for the city to pick up even though they have dumpsters in the back. And still others break trash weight limits or place trash bags without containers on the street, which is a breeding ground for rats and can send the trash rolling down the street on a windy day, Alcantara said.”It’s costing taxpayers money when ? the trash that isn’t supposed to be collected is collected on your tab and on my tab,” he said.But Alcantara said most of the violations stem from business owners not knowing the rules. He noted that 90 percent of Union Street’s businesses are run by Latinos, many of whom don’t speak English.”All the Latino businesses, they didn’t know the rules,” he said.So Alcantara decided to tell them.In March, the native Spanish speaker walked up and down Union Street informing business owners like Geoconda Yanez, who runs the money-wiring company, Ria Envia, that they were breaking the city’s trash laws.The results have been mixed, he said.On a rainy April afternoon, Yanez said she has been happy to comply with the city’s trash regulations now that she knows them.After speaking with Alcantara, she said she puts out a recycling bin with her trash for the city to pick up every Wednesday morning. It’s something she said she’s never done while running a business in Lynn.”You have to educate yourself if you don’t have experience in recycling,” she said.Across the street, Las Delicias restaurant owners, Ana and Manuel Carbajal, had a similar experience.The two regularly recycle their trash, but only after Ana Carbajal attended a meeting of Spanish-speaking business owners last month where Alcantara explained the laws.Manuel Carbajal said neighboring businesses often dump broken TVs in his trash bins behind the restaurant. Before speaking with the DPW, he said he used to allow it. But now, he said he calls the city and reports the violation.”I don’t have to put it together with my garbage because nobody will pick it up,” he said.Alcantara said after his one-day outreach, he counts 17 businesses on Union Street violating his trash pick up laws. But he estimates that many of those businesses cost taxpayers about $400 a year.Alcantara said it’s often up to him to catch violators from Lynn’s more than 29,000 businesses and households, a job that comes on top of his other duties, he said.”They were getting away with it because there was nobody doing the enforcement,” he said.When he finds a violation, he reports it to the city’s inspectional services, whose agents can issue fines that range from $50 to $5,000. Alcantara said it’s not unusual for people to drive into Lynn and dump their hazardous waste, which warrants the higher range of fines.The DPW also circulates two hidden cameras throughout Lynn to catch illegal dumpers. And sometimes Alcantara and his crews will dig through illegal trash to find identifying information they can pass on to police.”There’s usually always mail in there,” he said.But Alcantara said the city’s trash laws won’t be uniformly followe

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