Let’s Try Educating Residents Instead of Punishing Them

Dear Reader,

Below is correspondence between a county official and me. My interpretation of the official’s letter is this: It’s puzzling why the county staff and OCOC minimize the damage —to residents, to the landscape, to the county’s recycling efforts—caused by the Quail Valley HOA. You can make your own interpretation.

This spring I took photos from inside the old community barn showing than some of the recycle bins were indeed in good shape (although a bit dusty), and certainly the residents’ trash receptacles were good. These ought to be returned to the residents – by the HOA. I was surprised at how many receptacles where there, sitting in the dark.

As a prelude to the letters below, I would like to spotlight one particular management challenge that our HOA avoids: How do you educate residents about how to DISPOSE OF a broken blue recycling bin? Montgomery County has a very good webpage answering this question, “Recycling Bin – pickup request,” and I will quote from it here:

"Have a broken or unneeded blue recycling bin at your home? Add bin pickup to your "Cart".
We [the county] must have a specific pickup request in order to take your old bin.

[After you have added your request to the Cart, then here is] How to prepare your bin for pickup:

* Set your blue bin at the curb upside down and empty next Monday morning by 7:00 a.m.

* Leave the bin at the curb. The pick-up will occur when delivery personnel are in your neighborhood.

If you ordered a new bin at the same time, we will pick up your old bin when we deliver your new one. Blue bin pickups are made by County staff, not by your recycling collection crew. [That] may happen any day of the week, and not necessarily on your recycling day."

That webpage is well and good, but for any responsible property manager, the challenge is now to get residents to look at it! Hmmm. What the county wants residents to do is a little bit tricky. You have to go online, get yourself a “Cart,” and put your requests for service into this cart. [Update: You can also call 311 and ask the county to pick up your old bin and leave a new one. For many residents, that is the simplest route.]

We need to inform residents about how to take advantage of these opportunities. We need to assist. That is called management. It’s a challenge of public education. New families move in every month. We have 592 households in Quail Valley, and there is great cultural diversity. For example, the local elementary school reports that children’s parents speak more than a dozen Native languages. For many, English is their second or third language. (I met a translator from Afghanistan last week.) The ways to reach out to residents seem to multiply every morning, and that’s a challenge too. Some folks look at Facebook, others Instagram, and still others Twitter, and a very few read the emailed HOA newsletter. How do we intelligently inform our public? It’s a key question of our era in history. Don't despair, there are some answers. We ought to explore them.

The HOA shows little interest in the process of public education. There's a newsletter. An email telling us about an upcoming community-wide yard sale.

The HOA's response to a serious challenges is to punish residents, grabbing perfectly good blue bins along with the broken blue bins (which can sit on the curb for weeks). That “policy” of confiscation does not inform the residents, and does not address the underlying problem. That is not the kind of management that the residents of Quail Valley want or need.

One resident, Ms. Aileen Carmon, has testified,

“A few years ago, I could not get at the blue recycle bins buried in snow. The large bin for paper had wheels, the other was the smaller bin for glass, metal, and plastic. The snowplow buried them both. Before I got home from work, the HOA had managed to pull them out of the snow and take them down to the barn. I called and complained. I would like to recycle, but I don’t anymore. I will recycle again when the HOA and [property management company] return my two recycle bins to me."

Fair enough. I hope the HOA board of directors will begin to make amends to the residents of Quail Valley. Help us clean up the neighborhood.

-- Steve Lapham (AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY: A member of the QV HOA board provided a blue recycling bin to Ms. Carmon in April 2023. I think that is a good beginning to making amends. -- Steve L)

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On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 10:51 AM Clem, William Micha. <William.Clem@montgomerycountymd.gov> wrote:

Steven Sellers Lapham, 18737 Purple Martin Lane, Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Good morning Mr. Lapham,

My name is Michael Clem and I manage the residential collection of recycling, yard trim, and refuse for the County. Councilmember Evan Glass and Director Adam Ortiz, Environmental Protection, have forwarded to me your complaint that [your HOA] is ‘hoarding’ recycling bins provided to residents by Montgomery County Government. I apologize for the delay since the investigation closed last month and I mistakenly failed to communicate the findings to you.

On June 4, the County’s Collections Manager, Joe O’Connell, contacted ... one of two people who manage your townhome development. [They] explained that many residents cluster their recycling bins in central locations for weekly collection. Frequently, some residents do not return their container to their townhome after collection. The bins are left out and are an eye-sore to other residents. After a day or so, a maintenance person collects the abandoned bins and places them in a storage shed on the property. Our inspector visited this shed and removed approximately thirty recycling bins. Most of these were dirty and damaged. None can be re-issued to County residents because of their poor condition. The bins have been recycled. The Inspector reported that he does not believe that [the property manager] is attempting to interfere with the County’s recycling services by removing bins.

Both the County’s Collections Manager and Inspector suggested [the HOA communicate] with residents of Quail Valley the County’s requirement that recycling bins be removed from public space after collection. Because the collection location is not County property, but property controlled by your HOA, the County does not have authority to issue a violation notice. If you communicate with your neighbors, you might consider reminding them to return their bins to their property.

This situation of residents’ ‘clustering’ bins for collection in townhome developments and then not removing them after collection is very common and causes consternation for affected residents and management companies across the County. The County’s recycling education and outreach specialist has been made aware of this recurring problem.

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions,

Wm. Michael Clem, Chief, Collections Section
Recycling and Resource Management Division
Department of Environmental Protection, Montgomery County, MD
Desk: 240-777-6401 ** Mobile: 202-641-3307 ** Currently working remotely

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July 22, 2021

TO: Wm. Michael Clem,Chief, Collections Section, Recycling and Resource Management Division, Department of Environmental Protection, Montgomery County

Dear Mr. Clem,

Thank you for your efforts, which I think are a step in the right direction.

It's up to our county councilors now to step up to the plate on this problem. The OCOC has not been helpful. These QV HOA [and property management company] practices do not educate the residents. The residents are mystified by the disappearance of their garbage receptacles and recycle bins. There are more effective alternatives for addressing the problem of cans-not-put-away. The county itself has bright orange stickers that haulers can place on a bin to give a message to the owner (e.g., Plastic mailer envelopes are not recyclable. We did not accept these materials.)

Physically disabled QV residents are required to pay $50 to have their bins returned to them by the HOA. We wonder if this is a violation of the federal law ADA. Rats appear when residents place their food waste in plastic bags, contrary to county law, as a result of their trash cans disappearing.

I agree that communication and education are key. The County has great informational fliers, in various languages, which I carry around in my car. I often converse with Quail Valley residents, my neighbors, about proper trash and recycling practices. I take photos of residents' bad practice, and I talk to residents about their errors, and how and why to avoid errors. I've not been punched in the face because I do this gently, but assertively. …

NNTR. Have a good day, and thank you for your public service.

Steven S. Lapham

18737 Purple Martin Lane

Gaithersburg, MD. 20879

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