Oakland brings back free disposal event for large items to combat illegal dumping
By John Ramos
Oakland has struggled with a persistent illegal dumping problem, and usually the approach centers on trying to catch and punish violators. But on Saturday they focused on avoiding the dumping at its source by offering a free disposal event for large items, before they end up on the streets.
Cars and trucks lined up all the way down the street to take part in what was being called Oakland’s “Bulky Block Party.” The city set up a space for residents at a corporation yard to bring large items for free disposal. Luther Parham had a truckload that would have been expensive to dump normally.
“The minimum price is $165 to go across the scale with a small truck,” he said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the people need help disposing of this stuff, you know?”
John Hillmon is Operations Manager of the Public Works Department. He said the line into the facility had been steady since 6:00 am, except for one short period during the noon lunch break.
“So, seeing it tick back up gives me a little bit of, ‘OK, we’re in the right spot.’ Things are normal,” he said, with a laugh. “We didn’t run out of garbage, there’s plenty to go around!”
Hillmon agreed that paying to legally discard material had gotten pretty costly, and it is likely giving people a reason to dump out in the community.
“It is expensive, from what I hear,” Hillmon said. “It’s pricey, and so people would rather come here. And it is one of the reasons that people state that they would ‘leave’ material —anecdotally — on the street. Because dump fees are expensive.”
Councilman Noel Gallo has committed himself to cleaning up the city in a big way. Nearly every day, for years, he has filled his city-leased truck with a load of trash. And he said five of his six staff members spend their days picking up trash and junk from the streets and sidewalks. On Saturday, they showed handfuls of disposal receipts from just this past week, each one representing close to a ton of garbage.
“We’re there a lot. At least two to three times a day,” said staff member Chrisian Rios. “But we try to push it, try to keep the streets clean. Almost every day. At least Monday to Saturday.”
“You’re going to see all kinds of stuff,” said Gallo as he drove through the neighborhoods where the dumping occurs.
He said he is more angry with city government for not enforcing basic laws over the years, which he said has encouraged people to view Oakland as a safe place to drop their trash. And while he liked what was happening at the Bulky Block Party, Gallo said it would be more efficient to allow individual residents to dump items once a month for free directly at the transfer station, rather than paying overtime to city employees to do it at large community disposal events.
“Why don’t we include that in our contract with Waste Management?” he said. “That I, as a resident, can go straight to the dump yard and dump? I don’t have to wait for your pickup trucks and all that other stuff.”
The city used to have a monthly disposal program, but Gallo said it could cost up to $400,000 per event, and they ended two years ago because of budget cuts. The new program will offer a free bulky item disposal event on the fourth Saturday in July, October, January, and April.
