By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City officials want residents to put a lid on it, literally.
To prevent trash from blowing onto the streets, neighboring yards and other areas of the resort, they are uging residents and second homeowners to make sure they are using receptacles that have the proper lids.
In the city’s Feb. 13 e-newsletter, officials urged residents to abide by the rules to help keep the community clean and protect the environment and wildlife.
“Please place trash and recyclables in separate, rigid containers with detached lids. Plastic bags are not to be placed on the curb. All trash and recyclables must be in rigid containers so the wind and seagulls can’t rip open trash bags. Also, household trash is not to be placed in public trash containers,” according to the e-newsletter.
Yet not all residents are heeding those words.
During a Feb. 13 City Council meeting, Councilman Bill Kehner noted that some garbage has been left at the curbside by second homeowners or renters.
The people leave Sea Isle and trash sits there, sometimes for days. In Kehner’s area of town, trash is collected on Wednesdays by Public Works employees.
“People are putting out their trash on Sunday when they are leaving and trash pickup isn’t until Wednesday,” he explained. “Plastic bags are left out. Birds could get them.”
Kehner said the Public Works Department does a great job, but residents need to do their part.
During a ride around Sea Isle on Wednesday, some residents or renters left trash out at the curb, exposed to the elements, unsecured and not in containers.
Sea Isle City Public Information Officer Katherine Custer said that it is paramount people abide by the trash regulations to protect the ecosystem and animals.
“There are regulations in place, and we need all of our residents and visitors to follow those laws,” Custer noted. “It is good for the community and good for the environment.”
She pointed out that seagulls have been known to pull apart trash bags, creating litter.
Custer emphasized that the ecosystem is very delicate.
“It is up to us to do our part,” she said. “Whenever trash of any type lands on the street or on the curb, it is likely it will end up in our marshes, in the bay or ultimately wash up on the beach. Worse still, trash could be ingested by one of the animals that live in the local habitats.”
