Video Story
Watch VideoDiscarded garbage a problem in Colorado Springs
Story By: Susan Davies
Source: KOAA
Just one month's worth of garbage gathered from creeks and ditches stands a good 30 feet high and 50 feet across. Somewhere inside the pile is a hot tub. Old bicycles, abandoned children's playground equipment and mattresses make up the pile. Next to that pile are 22 grocery carts.
Each year 250 abandoned carts are recovered. Grocery stores don't want them back so they're recycled. Stormwater maintenance workers say during the past 30 days they've collected enough garbage to fill between six and eight semi-trucks. At $225 per load to send to the landfill, it's a significant cost. Not to mention crew time that would be better spent repairing underground storm water pipes and shoring up bank erosion.
Explains Mike Gigg, Stormwater Maintenance Supervisor, "Our main concern is public safety. When this stuff is dumped and comes up against a culvert, it creates dams and starts flooding people out."
