A recycling container is not a dumpster, a South Point man learned the hard way Friday.

Willis B. Young, 61, of 49 Township Road 1428 W, pleaded guilty to littering in a recycling dumpster.

Lawrence County Municipal Court Judge Donald Capper sentenced Young to 10 days in jail but suspended the sentence and placed Young on one year of probation. Further, Capper fined Young $200 and ordered him to pay restitution of $106.32 to the Lawrence Scioto Solid Waste Management District to decontaminate their recycling containers. Young will also have to perform 30 hours of community service and pay court costs of $110.

Young was accused of leaving bowling balls, old shoes and other items in containers at the Sam’s/Walmart Super Center parking lot in Burlington. Those containers are meant to accept only paper, aluminum, or plastic for recycling. Putting any other items in the receptacles is against the law.

“We want people to know the court and the solid waste management district are cracking down on people who do things like this,” solid waste management district enforcement officer Steve Hileman said.

This follows another case earlier this month when Capper handed down a similar sentence to Yvonne Rhodes, of Huntington, W.Va., after she pleaded guilty to dumping her trash in recycling containers at the Sam’s Club/Walmart site in Burlington.

Capper said he and his family and friends often use those recycling containers and he is sometimes surprised by what he sees left in them or near them that does not belong.

“I’ve seen mattresses, old furniture, things that are obviously not recyclable,” Capper said. “It’s totally unfair to the community and to the solid waste people who are trying to make things cleaner. The use of these containers for waste interferes with that. People need to be more aware that their actions do affect others.”