Local businesses at Drake Landing Plaza in Okotoks are seeing a rise in local garbage being disposed of in their private bins and want to stop the overflow.

Even with a gate and fence surrounding the bins, shops are furious with not being able to get rid of their own garbage.

Chow Bella Owner Kristal Gale says herself and other owners have reached their breaking point.

Chow Bella Owner Kristal Gale looks at the extra garbage near her bins at Drake Landing Plaza from others using their bins as their own dumpster

""We've actually as a group, pay up to $5000.00 to have the fence and signs posted up," she says. "So those were additional expenses that we incurred last year, and it's not doing anything its not preventing anyone from stopping."

 Gale has had to repeatedly call out garbage disposal to empty their bin, and when the garbage truck is dispatched besides their usual pick-up date, there's an additional fee to haul the waste away.

She says its a real nuisance.

"I think its grown adults that don't want to pay dump fees, and don't realize that its us that its us that's paying for them to toss their trash," she says. "I'm frustrated, we're in an expensive rent area in the first place, the last thing we need to have is additional costs."

 

Gail says the types of garbage shes seeing in the bins is getting worse each time she goes out to the bin.

"When I was bringing back boxes into the recycling bin and trash into the garbage bin, I saw a child's plastic hockey net, that was practically taking up the entire bin," she says. "Now as a result of that its practically full, and needs to be emptied again, and on our dollar."

When asked if putting a lock on the gate would help keep public garbage out, Gail said they've tried that but have had locks broken on occasion and garbage being dumped or just left beside the dumpster.

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