Charity dumps

“When the bins first started appearing, there were only a few, and then more and more appeared. Then unscrupulous folks started dumping at these sites,” said Elaine Womboldt, facilitator for Rejuvenate South Lansing, a community advocacy organization. “They didn´t care because, in my opinion, they could get away with it without having to pay for the disposal. It then became someone else´s problem to clean up.”

Photos from the city show overflowing bins at Holmes Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Nearby, another set of photos shows mattresses and sofas sitting by a bin outside the abandoned Electronic Data Systems facility.

Both bins have been removed because of consistent complaints. But city officials said that getting to that point has been a problem because the bins are unregulated. The property owners bear the responsibility of cleaning up the accumulated junk, often after the city has issued code compliance premise violations.

A proposal before the Lansing City Council Public Safety Committee would require bin owners to get permits for each one. City lawyers rejected a proposal to limit the number of bins because it would be unconstitutional. Instead, the proposed ordinance will include a provision requiring a signed agreement with a property owner in which the owner acknowledges that they are responsible for code compliance enforcement of the bins.

“It became very apparent that we had a problem,” said committee Chairwoman Carol Wood, “Bins were also turning up on commercial property that was vacant, along with bins just showing up on sites without the permission of the owners of the property. We had been hearing complaints from people in the community about certain sites, especially ones in our corridors.”

In 2014, a Grand Rapids federal court issued a restraining order preventing the city of St. Johns from enforcing its ban on donation bins, citing the First Amendment. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in April upheld the lower court’s ruling.

“But it was made clear by the courts that communities could permit them with certain restrictions, and that is what we are attempting to do,” Wood added.

Volunteers of America has 10 bins in Lansing that provide the charity with thousands of pounds of clothing, household items and other material every month that are sold or given away.

“We take extensive steps to maintain orderly donation collection sites — the collection of these donations are vital to our Michigan operations,” spokeswoman Shannon Miller said. “Also, our reputation is on the line. It’s in our self-interest to keep our sites well maintained.

“It is our hope that some poorly maintained collection systems do not result in damaging backlash to legitimate, Michigan-based programs that help the most vulnerable in our community. It seems that the problem sites often are non-local, sometimes even for-profit collection centers with unclear purpose for the materials left there.”