Lilburn Bans ‘Unsightly’ Drop Boxes

“People are dropping their home telephone lines,” the video says. “The result is, we have no way of contacting them. That’s why it’s so important for us to have donation bins located throughout the community that are convenient so our donors can find them and continue to make their donations.” 

But some cities like Lilburn think they’re an “unsightly nuisance.” City spokeswoman Nikki Perry says many of Lilburn’s 20 drop boxes were also misleading. 

“The owner was represented as a nonprofit organization accepting donations, but actually it was a business collecting items for resale,” Perry says. 

That’s why the city banned all drop boxes. It tried to regulate them in 2013. Owners could pay $100 for a permit, but no one showed up to register.

The city of Duluth has 12 registered drop boxes, but Code Compliance Officer Sharon Shepphard says she would welcome a total ban. Sometimes, she says, the collection process is messy.  

“Everything is on the ground and they’re separating this from that and I think it should be better organized when people come empty the containers,” Shepphard says. 

Owners of drop boxes in Lilburn have until next week to remove them.  

Other cities in Michigan, California and Florida have bans on the boxes. But Martha Byrnes with Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful says some local governments have been having a hard time with enforcement.    

“In the last year and a half, there have been several times when a tractor trailer with boxes on it will just suddenly appear and drop them off in the middle of night at various public locations,” Byrnes says.  

She says when these illegal boxes overflow, raccoons, dogs and rodents go through the items and make it even more messy. 

In the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, a drop box ban was blocked by a U.S. District judge last year, because he said the ban might be unconstitutional.