LOS ANGELES—As the amount of trash found on city streets quintupled in five years, the Los Angeles City Council approved on March 9 the last of five motions introduced by Councilman Kevin de León as part of his plan to reduce illegal dumping throughout the city.
Councilors voted 11–0 to pass four of the motions on March 1. The motion approved on Wednesday is aimed at enforcing the city’s law against dumping by having the Bureau of Sanitation and the City Attorney’s Office report on resources needed to establish an enforcement and prosecution program. It also requests a report on ways to deter illegal dumping, including via cameras in areas with high rates of dumping.
“The city of Los Angeles is facing a crisis when it comes to trash, bulky items and illegal dumping. In every corner of the city, pieces of furniture, loose debris and trash piles are prevalent,” de León wrote in one of five motions introduced on Feb. 1 as part of his “Clean Streets Now” plan.
De León said the Bureau of Sanitation has nine two-person teams that deploy each day to handle illegal dumping cleanup. The Office of Community Beautification also provides funding to address loose trash and debris, and council district offices fund their own crews to address it as well.
“The city consistently pours more resources every year into cleaning the public right of way, but progress has been slow and the city is not moving the needle on neighborhood cleanliness,” de León wrote in one of the motions. “A better strategy is needed that integrates existing resources and adequately staffs the Bureau of Sanitation so that the city can more proactively address illegal dumping and trash.”
De León—who is running for mayor this year—also called for the city to address illegal dumping within 48 hours of it being reported or identified.
One of the motions requests a report from the chief legislative analyst, the Bureau of Sanitation, and the Office of Community Beautification as to the resources needed to adequately address illegal dumping. It will also include the number of crews and the amount of funding allocated to address the problem from different sources, including council district discretionary funds. The Bureau of Sanitation was also instructed to create an integrated strategy to coordinate additional resources to respond to requests within 48 hours.
Another motion instructs the Bureau of Sanitation to update the Council on the CleanState Street Indexing System and identify areas of the city with the highest rate of illegal dumping in each district. That report will also include data from MyLA311 calls for service and the amount of time it took for the area to be cleaned, as well as information on what resources are needed to reduce illegal dumping at the locations and make cleanups there more frequent.
The remaining two motions passed on March 1 were aimed at efficiently deploying Bureau of Sanitation teams that handle homeless encampment cleanups and increasing the frequency of street sweeping in commercial and industrial areas.
In August, the Council voted to reconvene a previously formed interdepartmental illegal dumping working group following a report that found illegal dumping of trash and hazardous items in the city’s public areas increased 450 percent between 2016 and 2020. The group—which includes the Bureau of Sanitation, the Bureau of Street Services, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Department of Recreation and Parks—is tasked with identifying trends and coordinating enforcement activities.
According to Controller Ron Galperin’s report, which was released on March 24, 2021, the Bureau of Sanitation is struggling to keep up with the increasing amount of waste dumped on sidewalks, streets, and alleys, and the waste is making it unsafe for all Angelenos.
The amount of solid waste picked up by sanitation crews increased from 9,200 tons in 2016 to 14,500 tons in the first eight months of 2020, according to the report.
The report also said that the Bureau of Sanitation’s resources are spread too thin because it is charged with handling illegal dumping and cleanups of homeless encampments. As a result, the report stated, the average time it took sanitation crews to respond to illegal dumping requests in 2020 was five days.
The bureau has 19 surveillance cameras across the 470-square-mile city to catch illegal street dumping incidents.
