Taxpayer Cost of Illegal Dumping In The USA

I see it all the time, not only are people littering on the beaches, they illegally dump mattresses, couches and other household items on the beach. It is easy to do, pull up at night and just drop the stuff off… Think about how many times you see a mattress on the side in the middle of nowhere.. Illegal dumping is where

Illegal dumping is a global problem. There is not place in the world that does not have this issue. Illegal Dumping has huge costs to both the environment and taxpayers and communities. It effects property values and community health as well as safety. Toxic chemicals seep into the groundwater, polluting our drinking water and affecting plants. Plants die and animals die and people can die. Tires and trash attract mosquitos, rats and other vermin, which as we know multiply to breed more disease carrying pests. Not only that it lowers property values and is an eyesore.

Illegal dumpling is placing unwanted items/ trash in public or private places without consent. Illegally dumped items include animals, people and corpses and corporations, who illegally dump toxic waste. Illegal dumping also includes just dropping off items outside of Charity stores and in alleys.

I Just Gotta Eco Ya 

• It is estimated that there is currently approximately 98,995,672 tons of illegally dumped waste world-wide (Source)
• Denver, Colorado the city received nearly 4,500 complaints about illegal dumping, and costs for city Public Works crews to clean up the mess reached about $250,000 in 2012. (Source)
• Grand Junction, Colorado 2013 more than 100,000 pounds of garbage was dumped illegally on public lands in Western Colorado. Among what was dumped during the 2013 fiscal year: 26 refrigerators, 50 TVs and VCRs and more than 300 tires. tems dumped range from illegal, “Waste from meth labs, waste from marijuana cultivation, Human waste that was left in five gallon buckets, sexual toys that are left in the desert,
• Georgia:People discard $10,000,000 in scrap tires on Georgia streets and highways every year
• Los Angeles, CA; City workers with the Bureau of Sanitation collected 7,500 tons of illegally dumped trash last year, and the Bureau of Street Services issued 2,777 illegal dumping notices over the past two years,  “Clean Streets” program, a $5 million plan to clean-up abandoned trash from sidewalks and alleyways around the city The program grew out of a $1 million “Keep it Clean” pilot in the 1st Council District represented by Councilman Gil Cedillo. That program resulted in 1,000 tons of solid waste being removed from the district, which includes Glassell Park, Highland Park, Elysian Park, Westlake, Chinatown, Lincoln Heights, and MacArthur Park. The citywide program is in addition to the $3.7 million budgeted this year to clean up the Skid Row area in downtown Los Angeles and $500,000 for clean-up efforts in Venice.
• Oakland, California;  illegal dumping costs the city $5.5 million per year while adversely impacting property values and creating an environment of “blight and lawlessness”
• Sacramento, California-In 2012-13, city crews cleaned up 7,600 piles of illegally dumped debris.
• Maine-Volunteers cleaned up more than 50 illegal trash sites across the state Saturday
• Memphis Tennessee: The Department of Public Works has identified more than 100 illegal dumping sites across the city.
• La Cruces, NewMexico: 29,837 community volunteers donating 62,107 hours over the past two years, “the cost is almost $1 per pound to clean up. $1 per pound compared to $4 to legally dump an entire pickup load of trash at the SCSWA facilities.” “We removed 891 tons (or more than 1.7 million pounds) of illegally dumped materials over the past 24 months.
• Valencia County, New Mexico– Dump site cleanup comes with big price tag for Valencia County- Cleanup will cost roughly $440,000, and the county has about $90,000 in cash and services to contribute. That leaves a $350,000 gap
• Grand Traverse County, Michigan: Top Dump Site In Michigan- 700 known illegal dump sites statewide, and the state spends around $15,000 annually just in dumpster fees for the Adopt A Forest program. There’s also the cost of heavy equipment and manpower, which fortunately is often donated. Last year, 55,040 acres of Michigan land were cleaned through the cleanup program.

•  Charlotte, North Carolina-$1,300,000.00 -llegally dumped polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in North Carolina’s sewer system in February 2014 will cost the City of Charlotte more than $1.3 million to remediate
• Oklahoma has 2,446 illegal dumps, which will cost an estimated $3,922,000 to clean up.
• Oregon-In 2014 , there were almost 2,000 illegal dump sites in the Portland area.In one Oregon county, southeast of Portland, “513,013 pounds of solid waste, 55,811 pounds of scrap metal, 6,434 tires, 319 vehicles, and 2 illegal structures was removed from a forest. between 2003 and 2008, according to Dump Stoppers, a multi-agency program based in Clackamas County. (Source)

• Philly, Pennsylvania: More than 17,000 tons of illegally dumped materials.  The Unlitter Us campaign that costs about $500,000
• Jacksonville, Tennessee: Cleanup of illegal dumping costing Jacksonville more than $1M
• Virginia– County; Taxpayers foot hefty bill to clean up sites- leaning up the illegal debris is expensive, and cost the county about $92,000 last year. The county has 68 green box sites with 283 green boxes. Of those boxes, 95 are dumped twice a day, he said. Providing that service costs the county a total of about $1.3 million a year. (Source)
• Yakima, Washington: 2013, Refuse employees picked up almost 70 tons of waste dumped illegally around Yakima. That’s more than the previous two years.

I could go on and on. Illegal dumping isn’t just from Slimebags or lazy people,  Policemen, Trash Haulers, Governments, Target, Dollar Stores, Contractors, Politicians, Fracker, Marijuana growers all have been cited for Illegal Dumping. It is sad. I will never shop at a Target or Dollar Store again because I cannot condone that behavior and vote with my dollars.

What is your opinion?

You can find more examples of Illegal dumping on our Pinterest Board, Illegal Dumping.