Donation bins across Jacksonville now illegal

Blight Committee proposed new bill

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – They're meant to help the less-fortunate, but now donation bins where people can drop off old or unwanted clothing are now considered illegal in the city of Jacksonville after a new law that went into effect Wednesday.

Jacksonville's Blight Committee passed a bill making it illegal for the bins to exist and Wednesday code enforcement officers hit the streets telling owners they have a month to get rid of them.

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If the bins aren't removed the city will issue a warning that doesn't cost the businesses anything, but if the bins are still not removed the businesses will have to pay up.

"This picture is a perfect example of what we consider is blight. These containers to begin with are nothing more than trash receptacles disguised as a donation bin," City Councilman John Crescimbeni exclaimed.

There are hundreds of the bins across the city, in deserted lots or shopping center parking lots, and according to Crescimbeni, many are overflowing and becoming eyesores.

"A citizen brought it forth and sent me an email and I told him I'd put it on the agenda for a subsequent blight committee meeting," Crescimbeni said.

At that meeting the committee learned that similar legislation was already being introduced so the City Council approved a bill making it illegal for non-profit and for-profit groups to put up donation bins.

On July 1, code enforcement inspectors went to work placing citations on bins across the city, telling owners they had 30 days to remove the bins.

"Starting August 1 we're going to start issuing paying citations for these things and then also by August 1, we've asked our public works department to develop a procedure for removing these things," Crescimbeni said.

Crescimbeni said most of the bins are from for-profit companies and at Tuesday's City Council meeting, Goodwill and the Salvation Army supported the idea.

He said ultimately people are turning the bins into their personal dumping sites.

"You can see that it looks like trash sitting out there. And no neighborhood should ever have to put up with that," Crescimbeni said.

The question now is how the city is going to remove the hundreds of receptacles that are throughout the city after August 1.

A couple options that they're looking into is partnering with a towing company. Public works will be working on a more concrete plan between now and August 1.