Once again, people are — literally — trashing the recycling program in Bradford Township.

An anonymous comment submitted to The Era reported that 28 cans of paint and carpeting were found recently in one of the recycling Dumpsters at the site at 136 Hemlock St.

Municipal officials were dismayed, though not surprised, to learn of the misuse on Thursday, remembering when the program had to be stopped because of rampant misuse — ranging from dead animals to dirty diapers — in previous years.

The tipster also reported they had seen the vehicles of several area businesses filling up the Dumpsters rather than paying to have recyclables picked up at their own premises. The commenter pointed out that bulk dumping of that nature fills up the Dumpsters more quickly, leaving little room for township residents to put their own recyclables.

Township secretary-treasurer Nora Stewart said she had been told about the paint cans, but had not visually seen them herself in order to verify. Stewart plans to have Bradford Township Police view the surveillance footage to see what individual or business may have been unloading such a quantity of paint cans.

She said, to her knowledge, the program may be used by anyone in the area who wishes to recycle.

“We dump twice a week now and we haven’t had a big issues,” Stewart explained. “This isn’t just for Bradford Township residents. I’ve seen it get really filled during holidays or a long weekend when people are cleaning out a lot of things.”

She said the program is operated through Casella Resource Solutions. “We have allowed them to place them here at the township for use, but the township has no control over it.”

One thing Stewart said she has noticed is more electronics being set out next to the bins again.

“Once someone does that and others see it, they think it is okay,” she said. “We can’t take electronics — no one can — that’s why people have to watch for the special electronics take-back events. Casella won’t pick that up, they leave it, and then we’re left trying to figure out what to do with the electronics because the Dumpsters are not on our property.”

Supervisor Gayle Bauer said there is a list beside the Dumpsters as to what can be put in to recycle, which includes plastic, paper, aluminum and cardboard — no glass, that has to be taken to the Bradford City’s recycling center on High Street.

The recycling program was halted in November 2012 due to numerous incidents of misuse. About a year later, the program resumed with cameras in place to catch anyone putting inappropriate items in the Dumpsters.

“So far, it had been working fine. Before, we even had people putting deer carcasses in there. That’s the reason we put the cameras up,” said Supervisor chairman Steve Mascho. “Actually, these people can be prosecuted, and it only takes one or two to ruin it for everybody.

“I would hate to see us lose it again because when we had to take it away for a while, people were really upset,” Mascho said. “There are a lot of people that use it the right way. We got a lot of calls from residents that wanted to know where to take their recyclables and when the service would be back and I was happy we did.”

Mascho said he isn’t sure why people feel the need to bring garbage to the recycling site because the township’s garbage crews will pick up most things that are wrongly placed in the Dumpsters.

“People know it’s a recycling thing and they shouldn’t be doing that. Our garbage people are really good about picking up stuff. We’ll pick up the carpet and other things they have, so I’m not sure why they would want to bring it down and put it in the recycling,” Mascho said.

He said increasing the number of pick-ups per week has helped meet the demand, as so many in the area seem to be getting into the habit of recycling.

“There was a problem that the bins were getting full and people were just throwing it out there anywhere,” he went on. “We had stuff blowing through Georgia-Pacific and around the neighborhood. Now, we have more Dumpsters and have them picked up twice a week, and things looked like they were running pretty smooth.”

As to the people that are abusing the service, Mascho had the following statement:

“There are cameras up and they will be watched, and they will be caught sooner or later,” Mascho said. “It is not a garbage dump — that is for recyclables only. And, we will put more cameras out if we have to.”

A call to Casella Resource Solutions was not successful at press time Thursday night.