Trego's Mountain Ear

The green box issue – cutting down access to garbage removal services – in Lincoln County has me thinking about garbage.  Basically simple facts about garbage over a lifetime – there have been a lot of changes since 1960.

In 1960 there was a dump on Forest Service Land for Trego residents – less than a mile from where the green boxes are now.  It had the collateral advantage of being the place to find bears.  It was, fundamentally, trashy – but the old open dumps were cheap and accessible.

A half-century earlier, when Tobacco Lumber had managed the dam on Fortine Creek to run logs into Eureka, the garbage – mostly jars, bottles and cans, was just dropped on the ground at the edge of the neighbor’s place.  (Those dump sites lasted a long while before the cans would rust away.)  Some of the cans still had paint on them, proving that canned ham definitely preceded Spam.

Page 34, of Lincoln County Rural Living Handbook (March, 2011), page 34, describes “Waste Management”:  “The rural areas in Lincoln County do not have roadside garbage pick-up, and you may have to haul your waste to the local transfer station or landfill site.  The Lincoln County Landfill in Libby is the main site with an outlying transfer station in Eureka and Troy . . . For residents who live away from the 3 primary locations, 264 green boxes are available in 40 locations throughout Lincoln County for household waste.” 

That’s interesting – a dozen years ago, across Lincoln County there were 40 locations where you could get rid of ‘household waste.’  That number was reduced to    11     this year.  It was 13 at the start of 2023.

There’s a phrase that notes one of the differences between capitalism and socialism: “Under capitalism, the rich become powerful.  Under socialism, the powerful become rich.”  It’s hard to get into the garbage business these days.  A license from the Public Service Commission is required- and competitors already licensed and in the business are allowed to protest the application. This isn’t just a simple protest, they can potentially generate lots of legal fees for businesses just starting out. Still, the garbage business has been a way to money and power – Judy Martz went from the garbage business in Butte to become Montana’s Lieutenant Governor and then Governor.  I remember Scott Orr in Libby – S J Orr Services was waste management and recycling . . . and Scott was a state representative.  I don’t know what the term is for an economic system where the garbageman (or, in our case, woman) becomes powerful.

When I went to SDSU, we met a different waste disposal system than in Lincoln County.  I shared the story with Scott – instead of hauling our own garbage 20 miles to the landfill, I rented a Dempsey Dumpster for $20/ month.  A private contractor’s truck came by every two weeks to empty it.  Never did get a bill for the service – and after about 10 years we learned that a neighbor was paying $30, so we started mailing in a monthly check for $30. Two points to this story – first, private enterprise hauled our waste to the landfill, and second, after 15 years of use, the dumpster was still in good shape.

It’s a question of working the math – the truck emptied our dumpster 26 times per year.  That’s 390 times over 15 years.  The green boxes at Trego show a lot more wear and tear:

They look rough – but let’s do the math – if the truck picks up garbage three times per week, these boxes have 156 unloads per year – 2,340 over 15 years.  They have a fair excuse for looking the way they do.  Our private contractor owned the dumpster and the truck – while he may have been behind on billing, he took care of his equipment.  Here the waste service is paid for by taxes and provided by contractors.  Contrast the appearance of those green boxes with the one at Trego School:

I’ve used the dump site in Eureka – I’d hate to guess how many dead tires I hauled out of the trailer court – but 50 years left a lot of cleanup for me.  Pacific brought me a big box, and I put in 12 tons of metal waste – all stuff that someone figured might be useful someday. 

Perhaps – just perhaps – instead of blaming the folks who dispose of garbage improperly in the green box locations, we should look at the individual who our county government pays to be in charge of the green boxes.  Someone has been neglecting these sites for years . . . and now wants increased taxes for less service.  It may be fair to blame the folks who use the green boxes for all the problems – but it may be a lot fairer to look at the condition as created from the top down.  My guess is that the responsibility is a Libbyan County employee who visited the Pinkham Creek site once in a blue moon . . . or less.