The Breakdown of a Cleanup

A beautification campaign in Sunland-Tujunga has caused “utter chaos” for trash collectors and left many front yards cluttered with debris.

A special pickup of oversized trash, organized by City Councilman Joel Wachs, was marred by an unexpectedly strong response from residents and an omission on a flyer announcing the drive.

“It turned into more of a massive thing than anyone anticipated,” said Connie Ragsdale, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce.

Stack of Mattresses

One resident stacked up 9 or 10 mattresses for trash collectors to haul away. Another loaded up four tons of piping and plumbing materials, according to officials of the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation.

“Our feeling basically is that the program was too successful,” said Wachs aide Mark Siegel. “Things got a little above and beyond the capacity” of trash collectors.

The Bureau of Sanitation hauls away large items throughout the year if residents call 24 hours in advance and arrange for the disposal. The drive organized by Wachs was intended to get many people to put out their old furniture and broken appliances at the same time, with collections scheduled on Mondays, Dec. 8 and 15.

But as they do in the regular pickups of large trash, special trash collection teams only stopped at homes whose residents had called ahead of time. The problem was that notices mailed by Wachs’ office failed to list the Bureau of Sanitation phone number for reservations.

As a result, the trash remained at many curbsides. “It has caused utter chaos,” said one sanitation worker.

Sanitation officials said the pickups will continue until all the oversized trash is removed. There were so many items still outside Thursday that city street maintenance workers were called in to assist in the cleanup.

“I don’t know where they get the stuff,” said Marilyn McGuire, refuse collection and disposal manager for the Bureau of Sanitation. “They must save it for us.”

About 180 people have called Wachs’ office this week to complain, Siegel said.

“The trash is not being left there for long; it will be picked up by this weekend,” Siegel said. “I hope that in the holiday spirit this will soon be forgotten.”

First to Go Awry

McGuire, who oversees about 15 similar cleanup campaigns around the city each year, said such drives have been held in Sunland-Tujunga for 12 years, but that this was the first one to go awry.

But she also said that, by drawing so much trash, the Sunland-Tujunga campaign, “seemed to be, by far, the most successful.”

Larry John, street maintenance supervisor for the Sunland-Tujunga area, complained that some residents, such as the one who left out the piping and plumbing materials, misused the cleanup campaign.

“We shouldn’t be serving commercial purposes,” John said, adding that the effort took his workers away from their primary purpose, repairing roads.