GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Piles of aluminum siding, plywood, sheet metal and old tires are strewn across Bill Peterson’s backyard.

Peterson, who lives on Cherry Street in Grand Rapids’ East Hills neighborhood, says collecting trash is his “calling.”

The city of Grand Rapids has another name for it: a zoning violation. It wants him to clean up his backyard, and says Peterson is violating city rules by operating a trash sorting and recycling business in a residential neighborhood.

“The city of Grand Rapids should be in favor of all of us recycling,” said Peterson, 68, a neighborhood fixture who has hauled trash in the city for decades. “Telling me to do it someplace else would be like telling a homeless person there’s plenty of space in the penthouse in the Grand Plaza.”

Peterson and the city have been fighting about his trash hauling business for years.

The dispute has resulted in a string of code violations, landed him in court and earned him a brief jail sentence. Once, the city hired workers who, under police presence, came to Peterson’s home and hauled away an old pickup truck, furniture, appliances and other items he had not removed from his backyard at the city’s request, records show.

But Peterson isn’t budging.

After receiving another zoning violation in May, he continues to collect trash.

He unloads the garbage in his backyard and, using a magnet attached to his belt with a piece of twine, searches through the rubble for pieces of aluminum, steel and copper he can recycle. Peterson says he keeps his trash piles clean, and he points out that visitors won’t find anything in his backyard that’s “putrefied” or attracting swarms of flies.

“I’ve been advised by almost everybody to quit,” said Peterson, who calls his business Trailer Trash. “I can’t bring it upon myself to do that. It’s probably in my DNA.”

The city issued Peterson a zoning violation on May 29 and set an Aug. 27 deadline for him to cease business operations and clean up his property. City spokesperson Amy Snow-Buckner declined to discuss Peterson’s case.

“We have been listening to all opinions and concerns regarding this case and are looking at all options before moving forward,” she said in a statement.

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Peterson, who is on social security, says his operation doesn’t turn a profit and is almost akin to a hobby nowadays. He says he can’t afford to find a new home for his business, and that closing his doors would eliminate a service that neighborhood residents use to get rid of old belongings.

Walking through his backyard, past keyboards and toys, old engine parts and barbecue grills, Peterson said some trash has been in his yard for years. Other items have arrived in recent weeks or months. He says his passion for the work comes from his upbringing.

“My grandfather taught me that you don’t throw away something that you might use someday,” Peterson said.

“People I hung around with taught me the same thing. My wife is literally a child of the Depression. She doesn’t throw things away. Her mother didn’t either. The waste I see tears me up.”

Peterson’s neighbors are speaking out on his behalf.

“What Bill does, you can’t get any more sustainable than that,” said Greg Metz, co-owner of Lott3Metz Architecture, who has worked in a office next door to Peterson for about a decade.

“He’s taking stuff and he’s recycling it, he’s breaking it down, he’s trying to save as much as he can, he’s making the best use of it.”

Gabriel Works, who lives around the corner, echoed that sentiment.

“We know that he’s not just going to just take it to the landfill,” she said, referring to the trash Peterson collects. “We know that he’s going to be looking through it and recycling what can be recycled, which is something that an individual like myself simply doesn’t have the time or the capacity to do.”

Not all of Peterson’s neighbors have been supportive.

In 2014, a city code compliance manager sent an email to her colleagues indicating she was contacted by a rental property owner who complained that he could not find tenants for an apartment that overlooks Peterson’s yard. The email stated that Peterson “sorts metals all day with trailers coming in from customers to dump their junk” in his yard.

The fight between Peterson and the city has been ongoing for more than 16 years.

A city file kept on his Cherry Street home is filled with numerous violations documenting old engines, batteries, transmissions, trailers, plastic barrels and inoperable trucks found in his yard. The first violation is dated May 13, 2003.

At times, the dispute has grown heated.

In May 2012, a city zoning enforcement officer wrote that she was explaining to Peterson why she was issuing him a zoning violation, and that he responded by telling her “to get off his property before he did something he would regret later.”

Peterson told the Grand Rapids Press/MLive he was frustrated with the situation but has never been violent with anyone from the city.

City officials have said they hold no grudge against Peterson.

Suzanne Schulz, the city’s former planning director, wrote in a 2012 email to the East Hills Council of Neighbors that Peterson is a “very nice man,” and that she understands “he provides an important community service.”

But the city cannot overlook Peterson’s violation, she said.

“We have had similar enforcement issues over the years,” Schulz wrote, “and I can readily share with you that we cannot make distinctions between one individual or another if any type of enforcement is to be viewed as being consistently and fairly applied to all property owners.”

The dispute between Peterson and the city wound up in court in 2016.

According to court records, the city sued Peterson that January in 61st District Court for operating his trash hauling business on a residential property and storing items supporting his business outdoors.

Court records show he pleaded no contest to the charges, was assessed a $975 fine and placed on probation. Peterson later violated his probation for failing to bring his home into compliance, court records show, and was sentenced to five days in jail in December 2016 and another 10 days in jail in April 2017.

Speaking on a recent morning at his home, Peterson said he doesn’t want to end up back in jail or face further fines. He’s hopeful he can work with the city and find a solution to keep his operation going without further interference from the city.

“I can’t in good conscious not do this,” he said. “If I don’t do it, I don’t know who else will.”