A few weeks back, I was sent a back-and-forth on the Oakhurst Message Board voicing concerns about non-Public Works employees taking garbage and recycling from curbside and wondering about Decatur’s laws on such things.

I actually did follow up with Keith Lee at Decatur PD about it and he said that he wasn’t aware of any law, but that I should follow up with the city’s Public Works Department.  But I never did.

However, it sounds like our friends over in the Parkwood area of Decatur/Druid Hills have been dealing with a similar issue regarding recycling.  A post on the Parkwood Garden Club blog details of folks taking aluminum from DeKalb recycling bags and with the explanation that they were hoping to make a few dollars selling it.  It’s become such a pervasive issue recently that they followed up with the City of Decatur about its “scavenging policy” and here’s what transpired…

I called up the City of Decatur’s Public Works Department right then and there. I was directed to Felix Floyd, the Facilities Maintenance Superintendent of City of Decatur Public Works. Mr. Floyd had a name for this behavior: scavenging. Mr. Floyd intuitively empathized with the concerns I voiced on behalf of our neighbors and volunteered to me that recyclables scavenging is something City of Decatur doesn’t want people to do, but there is currently no “scavenger ordinance” in place yet making this activity illegal. He went on to explain that Decatur recycling issues are under the purview of the City’s Environmental Sustainability Board, whose members have indicated that within the next several months, they may consider drawing up an ordinance that would ban aluminum scavenging from residential curbsides.

The Sustainability Board has purview over garbage scavenging?  Interesting.

Oh, and what about all the furniture that people leave at the curb, in seeming anticipation that someone in a pickup will drive by and take it off their hands?  Would Decatur specify that scavenging old rocking chairs is OK, but tuna fish cans are not?  Again, interesting.