It's Getting Really Bad: Illegal Dumping

A lot of us know the Richmond and Sunset districts have a major issue with illegal dumping. While it is not hazardous materials or waste from a construction job, people are think it's OK to dump their large bulky items on the street and expect someone to magically pick it up and take it home.

In reality, that's a bunch of bullshit. Nobody wants to take a soiled mattress or this dirty couch I photographed next to a bus stop on 33rd and Geary.

There's also those people who thinks it is OK to dump their home garbage in one of those city garbage cans. It's so obvious because you find garbage bags or grocery bags crammed in the city street trash cans or laying next to them.

Yesterday, I took the 18-46th Avenue to SF State and I noticed illegal dumping six times along the route:

1. Full queen mattress set with box spring and mattress pad.
2. Queen mattress only.
3. An overfilled city garbage can with multiple grocery bags.
4. A couch.
   
5. Some kind of furniture I can't identify.
6. A wooden computer chair.

People who illegally dump wastes our city's money. Recology will not pick-up random bulky items on the street and not likely pick-up home garbage bags laying next to city owned trash cans; this becomes the responsibility of DPW's fleet of trucks to clean-up our streets at an additional expense to us taxpayers. Since every apartment landlord and homeowner in this city has to have trash service, trash and bulky pickup is covered as part of your basic trash service. There is no excuse for illegally dumping your home garbage in city trash cans or your furniture on the streets. For some items, they can be dropped off at certain hardware shops around the city so there's no hazards like motor oil going down the city drains.

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An update to a previous blog post about illegal dumping: I asked the city to put a no dumping sign near a problematic area in my neighborhood. They placed the signage at the exact location I told them and every single time I pass by there, the corner was clean with no bulky items or crap laying there.

Want to find legal ways to get rid of your junk and how to get your neighborhood clean? Click here.