City of Jacksonville trying to control recycling overflow, trash dumping

JACKSONVILLE — The City of Jacksonville is trying to make it easier for you to get rid of those cardboards and plastics, it’s also asking for you to make sure you do it the right way.

Pictures from a neighbor show overflowing recycling dumpsters at Sheffield Park surrounded by cardboards - and even a carpet thrown on top.

City of Jacksonville works to streamline recycling drop-offs (Jessica Barreto)

This mess is forcing trash trucks to stop at Sheffield park multiple times a day to try and clean it up.

Regular park goers like Ashley Bruton who like to bring her dog for a hike are willing to sacrifice the views if it’s for a good cause.

“It’s not very cute, obviously.” she pointed out. “Hopefully it is doing some help.”

For people like Karen Conner, it is helping. She stopped by on Tuesday afternoon to drop off her recyclables.

“It’s better to recycle,” she said. “If I didn’t recycle, I’d have a trash bag every day, you know.”

There are four dumpsters used for recycling installed at the park, and that’s two more than early last week. The biggest issue is trash being dumped, and recyclables are getting tossed outside of the designated dumpsters.

“Broke my heart,” Conner said when she remembered what the dumpsters looked like last week. “People are just dumping garbage where it should be recycled.”

But on Tuesday, there wasn’t any visible trash around the dumpsters, aside from some cardboards resting on the side of one of the dumpsters.

So after Conner got rid of her own cardboards and plastics in the correct way, she told Action News Jax she’d be willing to come back again.”Is this your new spot?” asked Action News Jax reporter Jessica Barreto.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s the closest to me, so [it] works for me!” Conner replied.

Public Works and Social Services employees will be teaming up to keep an eye on these drop-offs, but neighbors are also asking people to be respectful of this shared space.

“Just be smart. Put the right stuff in there. Not garbage,” Conner said.

“Be responsible,” Bruton emphasized. “Don’t dump your trash and recycling where people come to enjoy a nice and clean area.”