NEW ORLEANS — Slowly but surely the city of New Orleans is trying to fight its illegal dumping problem with over 200 tons being picked up since mid-year.
The trash includes furniture, appliances and those always visible tires that are dumped in various areas around the city, making them eyesores and creating safety hazards.
A mid-year budget allocation of $1 million was made to the city’s sanitation department to help rectify the problem. The city hired three additional crews from MDL Enterprises to add to the single crew that was trying to manage the problem by itself. The new crews can pick up all the debris, with the exception of tires.
Only the previous city pickup crew is licensed to handle that.
In addition to the extra crews, the city is planning on opening two convenience stations where residents can bring their large bulk items without having to haul them all the way to the landfill.
“We also have been working steadily to increase our enforcement capabilities so the bad actors that are out there that are dumping throughout our city, whether it’s illegal dumping, whether it’s the tens and thousands of waste tires that plague our neighborhoods, then when we do catch those perpetrators they we are able to take strict enforcement," said Matt Torri, the city’s sanitation director.
Torri admits that even with the additional resources, it will take “an extended amount of time” to put a large dent in a large problem.