In some Atlanta neighborhoods, donation bins are more burden than benefit

A washing machine, two sofas, an office chair and wood shelving sat in the rain next to the green and white bin that was clearly marked with a “No Dumping” warning. Leaving items outside of the bin is a crime punishable by a fine, according to the language on the sign.

But how the owners of this debris might be tracked down and held accountable was a mystery. There were no cameras and no person monitoring the bin.

“Until these areas find affordable solutions for the communities … we are going to be stuck with this,” said Joscelyn O’Neil, a resident of South DeKalb, who has filed numerous code violations for trash in her neighborhood. One location was next to a rusted and likely abandoned donation box from Cardiac Life Extension and Rescue Coalition in the parking lot of a former Shell station off Bouldercrest Road.

O’Neil, who has served on the DeKalb County Code Enforcement Advisory Council for more than 20 years, told me that the site has since been cleaned up after years of complaints. But she added that this isn’t a problem caused by code enforcement.

Many metro Atlanta cities require a permit for donation bins, the metal containers often found in parking lots that are designed to accept clothing and textiles.

The bins may belong to for-profit organizations like Green Zone, but there are also nonprofit companies that host donation bins, such as American Kidney Services, a local nonprofit Atlanta charity that strives to help kidney disease sufferers in financial need.

Most local ordinances governing donation bins provide specifications for bin size and placement, as well as stipulations that the area around the bins be kept free of trash.

But city and county leaders, residents, donation box owners and property owners where the bins are located don’t always agree on who should be responsible for keeping donation box areas free of trash.

In Peachtree City, property owners are responsible for holding bin operators accountable for any violations.

In Douglas County, the donation bin ordinance states that bin operators or property owners are responsible for keeping the area free of trash, or the bin will be removed at their expense.

Some cities in the metro area, like Duluth, have addressed the issue by banning all donation boxes.

Credit: Johnny Edwards

Credit: Johnny Edwards

Back in 2016, Gwinnett County attempted to remedy the problem by banning for-profit collection bins on private property in unincorporated areas. In response, two of those for-profit companies filed a lawsuit, alleging that the law violated equal protection provisions of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions as well as their First Amendment rights.

But property owners were happy to see the bins go, calling them a public nuisance. At the time, USAgain, one of the companies involved in the lawsuit, had hundreds of collection bins in metro Atlanta. By 2020, that number was closer to 70, according to local news reports.

People may leave non-clothing or shoe items near the donation bins with the expectation that those items will also be donated or discarded, but without consistent monitoring and oversight, trash around the bins only creates a headache for nearby businesses and residents.

O’Neil lives in Greater Towers, and at one point, in an effort to hold someone accountable for the increasing amount of trash in her neighborhood, she put on her boots and grabbed a trash picker to sort through discarded furniture until she found a piece of mail with a name and an address. Then she reported the offender to code enforcement.

She and her neighbors have asked county officials to install hunting cameras near donation bins and other sites that have served as community dumping grounds but got no action. They tried fundraising on their own to purchase cameras but didn’t get the participation needed to afford the devices.

“The average community cannot pay $1,000 for one camera, and if you need one, you need more than one,” she said.

Donation bins offer a convenient way for residents to unload unwanted clothing, shoes and some other items. Those donations can provide support to people in need or keep usable goods out of landfills, but without proper oversight and enforcement of laws, they are more of a burden than a benefit.

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