Broken glass is a growing road hazard
To the editor:
We all have our source of things to complain about even in a place a great as Pine Island. I’m only going to bring up one today, glass in the streets at almost every recycle collection point, or at least at every point that the truck compresses and breaks the glass containers we recycle.
I ride a bicycle between 100 and 125 miles a week with a couple of other riders and we ride on the south end of the island, partly on the multi-use path and partly on the residential side streets. I don’t know about all the rest of the walkers and riders who use the same territory, but I get a lot of flat tires and invariably it turns out to be a small piece of glass that has punctured my tire and tube. Like a lot of others I also walk my dogs a couple of miles a day on these same residential streets and surprisingly I’ve only had one instance where I had to pick a piece of glass out of my boxer’s foot, but prior to the recycling effort we’re now engaged in I never had a flat from glass or saw the street glittering with sparkling glass bits with the sun low on the road as I do on almost every street now.
Can’t the county resolve this problem?
It seems to me that the problem is caused by the dump apparatus on these trucks which doesn’t get closed properly because of larger chunks of glass preventing the dump opening from closing all the way and then every time glass is crushed the small bits are pushed out through the opening.
I’m sure there are the isolated instances where an operator has a bottle go astray and miss the opening, but I think that is probably rare and the real problem is the equipment, or how it is checked for closure before going out on the pick up route.
Anyone who has a concern about this should call the Lee County waste management people and tell them to fix it, we never had this problem before and shouldn’t now. They need to hear from us.
The number is 239-533-8000, thanks for your help.
John Ryerson Bredin
St. James City