MABLETON, Ga. — Mountains of tires, trash, furniture and tractor trailers are being illegally dumped in parts of Cobb County.
It’s gotten so bad that Mableton Mayor Michael Owens told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that he’s trying to catch the dumpers.
“It’s unfortunate,” Owens said. “Illegal dumping has been a mainstay in this part of the county for quite some time.”
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He says some people are unloading full storage units.
“You will see everything from a fast food bag being thrown out of someone’s window to a tractor-trailer literally being dumped on a side street,” he described.
Volunteers on the frontlines of illegal dumping say property owners are oftentimes left footing the bill to clear out illegally dumped tires.
“It cost the property owner $40,000 to remove 2,500 tires,” volunteer Barry said. “One of the main dumping areas is church property.”
“Sometimes I think it is businesses that are trying to reduce their costs and other times I think it is citizens,” Owens said.
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He says he gives credit to the volunteers who clean out the trash, but wants to do more as Mableton develops as a city.
“I want to leverage technology so we can have cameras and sensors in certain places,” he says. “There’s more ordinances that we can put in place. I think we can go even further with anti-litter ordinances in this city.”
Owens says he is making some progress.
“We’ve actually been able to apprehend and catch illegal dumpers,” he said.
Cobb County Department of Transportation says they collect 800 pounds of trash per day and is on track to hit 140 tons of trash by the end of the year.
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