SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Broken hampers, household trash bins and an old rug dumped on a residential street. For Marino Alonzo, it's a weekly reality outside his home.
"They put it directly in front of it says no dumping," Alonzo said.
He watches it happen firsthand.
"I see. Couple of people actually dragging bags and just dumping it there," Alonzo said.
"It happens almost every week and we're the ones usually call to make the report," Alonzo said.
Alonzo's report is just one of thousands filed each month. In June, the city's Clean SD team completed more than 6,618 Get It Done reports related to illegal dumping.
I rode along with Franklin Coopersmith and his team from the city's Environmental Services Department as they responded to multiple alleys in Sherman Heights, where people drop off everything from old tires and mattresses to household trash.
"You can see there's some bags of trash, some pallets, some boxes," Coopersmith said.
Before removing anything, crews photograph the site, clean the area and take an after photo to close out the case.
"The first thing they do before they start removing anything is they'll take a photo just to show what was here. They'll go through, clean up the area, and then once they have the area all cleaned up, they will take an after photo, close out the case," Coopersmith said.
Coopersmith said the most illegal dumping occurs south of Interstate 8, in neighborhoods like Encanto, Sherman Heights and Grant Hill. In the last 30 days, Clean SD handled more than 300 cases in just those areas.
"Probably because there are a lot of alleyways in these areas. Or it's up against freeways, so there's places that don't necessarily have a watching eye looking over them," Coopersmith said.
Armed with rakes and heavy-duty dump trucks, most cleanup stops take around 10 to 20 minutes. But restoring the city's streets isn't always the hardest part.
"We don't know who's dropping this stuff out here," Coopersmith said.
In some cases, city crews report a site to a code officer, and it may take days to determine where the dumped material came from.
"We will look to see if there's any addresses on any of the boxes that maybe line up to any of the properties here," Coopersmith said.
Still, the priority is clearing sites as quickly as possible.
"Really our neighbors just want to see that stuff gone as quick as possible," Coopersmith said.
This year, the city added $100,000 and a dedicated position to help identify illegal dumpers and work with police on enforcement and outreach.
"So it's a balance of trying to get the waste out as quick as possible while trying to also take enforcement action," Coopersmith said.
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