Cardboard boxes, broken appliances, and mattresses litter Oakland's streets, turning the California city into a battleground against trash as officials and residents scramble for solutions to an escalating crisis. The problem is so visible that viral videos show kids walking in the road to avoid trash-blocked sidewalks and grandmothers dodging garbage with walkers, the New York Times reports. And the Trashland label is sticking, despite the efforts of volunteer groups to pick up the refuse. "It is hurtful, but we are a land full of trash, and we have to own it," said Sandra Bethune, 76, who was born and raised in Oakland.
The city collected 18 million pounds of illegally dumped trash last year—about 41 pounds per resident. That's a sixfold increase since 2015, making Oakland's trash problem one of the worst in the US relative to its size. While some blame homeless encampments, about two-thirds of the trash, said the acting public works director, comes from city residents and businesses. City Hall's approach—rapidly clearing dumpsites—may have backfired, normalizing the expectation that the city will haul away anything, anytime, free of charge. Meanwhile, enforcement is tricky: Fines go mostly uncollected, and criminal prosecutions rarely happen due to higher-priority cases.
"People pull up, dump their trash, and as you can see, anybody that wants to use the sidewalk, it's impossible," said Ansel Troy, who documents the piles in his neighborhood on social media, per CBS News. The mounds remain, residents say, sometimes for years. "So, what happens is, they just pile more onto the trash that's already there," Troy said. Josh Rowan, the public works official, wants to address the problem at its root by lowering the city's steep trash collection fees—$110 a month for a midsize can, more than double what nearby cities charge—and mandating garbage service for businesses. Early results from giving residents bigger cans for free show promise, per the Times, with less trash hitting the streets.
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