Cool it!
That’s all we have to say to
the dumpsters, the folks who can’t think of anything else to do with unwanted
property but to ‘donate’ it to some hapless neighbor who neither expects nor
wants it.
This became an issue for the
Valley Journal on Sunday, when we discovered a discarded refrigerator in our
parking lot. Some kind soul who had no doubt bought a replacement simply
plopped it there for us to deal with, apparently unwilling to go to the trouble
of hauling it to the dump and paying the tipping fee to leave it there.
This may be a new experience
for us, but it’s an altogether too familiar scenario for local farmers, who
from time to time find unwelcome deposits in remote parts of their properties —
anything from a plastic bag filled with refuse to the hulking shell of one of
yesteryear’s gleaming chariots.
There’s a serious cost to
all of this illegal dumping. The debris has to be hauled away, and for a long
time the farmers had to pick up the tab. It hasn’t been a free ride for the
rest of us, though, including the dumpsters, because the farmer’s expense
became part of what we had to pay in grocery stores for their farm products.
Nowadays the sheriff
collects the dumped property. Logs it as evidence of a crime, and disposes of
it. But guess who pays for that. Why, all the rest of us, of course, because as
taxpayers we foot the sheriff’s bill.
This kind of behavior isn’t
just rude, though rude it is; nor is it merely inconsiderate, which it most
definitely is. It’s frankly just plain stupid.
Wanna know why?
The skulker who snuck onto
our property and unloaded his problem under the cloak of night might be
surprised to learn this, but he contributed to our profit.
Not much, mind you, but a
little, because of a state program meant to encourage him, and all the other
people who have refrigerators they want to be rid of to take the high road.
Anxious to have people think
green, California has a refrigerator, freezer and air conditioner recycling
program. The state funds it, but it’s administered by local electric utilities.
Around here, that means Pacific Gas & Electric.
Curiously, PG&E doesn’t
advertise the program. Visit San Diego and watch television and you’ll see ads
for the program, administered there by San Diego Gas & Electric, several
times each day, both on broadcast channels and on cable channels. PG&E
prefers to keep its customers in the dark, apparently.
And that strikes us as
peculiar, because surely all those commercials on video screens in San Diego
are what the broadcast industry calls public service announcements. They’re
free.
But the bottom line is this:
a phone call to PG&E’s recycling partner, JACO Environmental [(800)
299-7573] is all it takes to make a quick $35 and get out from under the burden
of multi-refrigerator ownership.
The only trick is, the
refrigerator must be operational. We plugged our freebie in and, lo and behold,
it ran like a charm. So, we win, and the lunkhead who left the baby on our
doorstep loses.
But one small victory isn’t
as satisfying as a general change in the behavior of all the lunkheads out
there. Maybe that could be arranged, though, if we could just get PG&E to
advertise a state-funded program in which the utility ought to take some
measure of pride.
So, here’s our suggestion:
why don’t we all call PG&E [(800) 743-5000] and ask them why they don’t
advertise a consumer-friendly program like this that costs them nothing and
would generate some goodwill while doing the valley’s residents a favor. After
all, most of us don’t like to see used refrigerators littering our
neighborhood, do we?
That’ll be 2 cents, please.