Tackling trash: Contra Costa, nonprofit unite to target illegal dumping and educate public

HAVE YOU NOTICED a big piece of trash on the side of the road, like a mattress? You’re not the only one. 

Illegal dumping, the practice of unauthorized dumping of waste, is a widespread problem in Contra Costa County and around California.

In 2024, Contra Costa County received over 8,727 requests for cleanups — up from 6,665 in 2023 — in the county’s unincorporated areas, according to data from the county Public Works Department.

What is not clear is whether there is more illegal dumping or an increased awareness about what to do. More calls might indicate more garbage being dumped, or just more people who are reporting to the hotline.

According to Dylan Chiu, a solid waste and recycling planner in the county Department of Conservation Development, “Each year the number of requests for illegal dumping cleanup has increased countywide. If you look at the data, you will see that the increase is primarily driven by a higher volume of requests originating from North Richmond.” Despite the increase in the number of pickups, the total weight of waste collected in North Richmond has declined each year, according to Chiu.

Chiu also notes that there is no standard way to measure illegal dumping across the unincorporated areas in the county; North Richmond tracks the total weight of dumped materials, while the rest of the county does not track that data. The rest of the unincorporated areas of the county track requests for cleanups and how many cleanups occur, not the total weight of trash.

Most likely, North Richmond has a high number of pickup requests due to having a full-time crew devoted to pickups there, Chiu said. North Richmond makes up around 80% of pickup requests each year across the unincorporated areas.

Fighting the blight

Contra Costa utilizes many different strategies to help fight illegal dumping. Chiu mentioned 56 strategies, in four different categories of action, including education, prevention, cleanup, and enforcement. These are only to help the unincorporated parts of the county. This is funded by Measure X, a voter-approved, countywide half-cent sales tax that goes toward many general purposes, including children and youth services, fire and emergency, mental health, and more. 

Some of the most utilized strategies include surveillance, which involves installing cameras; community cleanups, which can be used as a social community event that also helps get rid of trash; and working with garbage companies to pick up illegal dumping across the county. In addition, the Public Works Department often fences off hot spot areas to prevent more dumping from happening. Another strategy to stop illegal dumping is holding a big-item trash pickup day to encourage residents to wait for that day to legally get their extra trash picked up. 

Not everyone believes in the effectiveness of city or county strategies.

Urban Compassion Project, a nonprofit based in Oakland, was specifically formed to pick up trash that was not being picked up by city services. 

Founder Vincent Williams’ group works with unhoused populations as well as conducting cleanups, relying on many volunteers. He said that last year his group held 46 cleanups, resulting in picking up over 1 million pounds of “illegally dumped trash and litter from streets, parks, encampments and waterways in Oakland.”

One reason for illegal dumping is that it’s expensive to dispose of trash, Williams said. He explained that some people learn the cost of legally disposing of trash in the Bay Area and find out they can’t afford it. For example, it costs $37 to legally dispose of a cubic yard of green waste in Contra Costa County, or $126 per ton.

Trashing the Bay

In addition to being a nuisance, illegal dumping can cause problems in the waterways or block storm drains. Williams says his group has seen all kinds of things dumped into the estuary in Oakland. 

“Tires and rims and shopping carts and water bottles and papers and plastic … printers, car parts, truck parts, you know, all of this stuff ended up in the water. We found oil filters from vehicles, enough to fill a case, which means that, to me, somebody operating some type of automotive business where they’re able to replace oil filters, and they’re just throwing the old filters into the water, but those filters still have residue from oil in them. The way that this impacts our marine life isn’t good.”

On the bright side, he said he’s come back to visit some of the encampments, as well as storm drains and other areas that were cleaned up. Some places, he said, that he couldn’t imagine could have life growing back, he’s seen plants growing in the soil and spotted wildlife in the waterways. 

“Such a simple step of just cleaning up a little bit helps out so much,” he said.

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Rachel Ross is an 11th grader at El Cerrito High School in El Cerrito and a Contra Costa Youth Journalism reporter. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.