AKRON, Ohio — Recycling dumpsters are meant to help the environment, but at First Congregational Church of Akron UCC, they’ve become more of a problem than a solution.
“We’ve reached out to Royal Oak to ask them to remove the two dumpsters from our property, so that we have the access to our new parking lots that we want and we’re getting absolutely no response,” said Finance and Operations Manager Janis Worley.
Now, Worley said the dumpsters are impacting the church’s plans to expand its food pantry because they can’t extend their existing parking lot to reach their new building.
“It’s very frustrating here. We’re a very socially progressive church here. We have a lot of ministries that serve the local community. We want to be able to expand those ministries, and we need the excess space to do that, and we’re being held back because of these dumpsters,” said Worley. “We’re getting nowhere because those dumpsters aren’t moving.”
Years ago, Worley said the church first got the dumpsters from Royal Oak Recycling, a Michigan-based recycling company, when the church needed a place to get rid of leftover boxes from its food pantry.
Since then, Worley said the company’s free pick-up service has been unreliable, so the church decided to work with a different recycling company and has been asking Royal Oak to remove those dumpsters since January.
But so far, Worley said they’ve been left in the dark.
“No reaction. No response. The dumpsters are still here,” said Worley.
Shortly after speaking with Worley, News 5’s Remi Murrey called the company’s local rep when they didn’t respond to her text.
This time, someone answered and said the dumpsters should be gone by Thursday.
News 5 immediately called Worley, who said she’s hesitant but hopeful the church can finally move forward.
“That’s all we want. It would really help us. It would really serve us and help us improve our ministries here in the community,” said Worley.
If you need help with a problem, email remi.murrey@wews.com.
