Legal dumping

Each year after graduation, the mass exodus of thousands of Chico State students leaves behind a lot of debris—furniture in various states of disrepair, fully functioning appliances, enough Bob Marley memorabilia to fill the world’s largest head shop and, in one case, porn for the blind.

“The strangest thing I’ve seen was a 10- to 15-volume set of pornography in braille,” said Raul Gonzalez, a city of Chico code enforcement officer who was overseeing one of two Drop & Dash points last Thursday (May 22). “It was all just white pages and braille … none of us even knew something like that existed.

“Some people use [Drop & Dash] as an opportunity to clean out their basements or garages, so we sometimes get freezers filled with something they forgot about a long time ago,” continued Gonzalez. “You open one up and sometimes it smells deadly, like a funk that covers the whole area.”

Drop & Dash is an annual effort to curb illegal dumping and redirect usable items to local relief organizations, which Gonzalez has helped organize for the last decade. During the event, anyone—students or otherwise—is invited to leave waste or unwanted items at one of two drop-off points (south of campus at Third and Orange streets and north of campus at West Sacramento Avenue and North Cedar Street) for free. Today (Thursday, May 29) is the final day of the event.

“People can just show up and we don’t ask any questions, we just help them unload and get them moving on their way,” Gonzalez said, noting the only things they don’t accept are tires and hazardous materials. “The purpose isn’t just for people to clean out their properties and bring us their garbage, but [also that] several local organizations benefit from what we collect.”

Gonzalez explained that city workers go through and determine what items may still be useful. These items are sorted and set aside, and representatives from The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, Esplanade House, The Jesus Center and other organizations are invited to take what they can put to use.

“For example, if a student drops off a bunch of dishes, that might go to the Esplanade House, nonperishable canned food will go to The Jesus Center, and any building materials will go to the ReStore,” he said. “Most of the e-waste (electronic equipment) goes to Computers for Classrooms.”

A loader is kept on-hand to pack any landfill-bound items into large dumpsters, and upon arriving at the dump, they are again picked through for any recyclable material or other items city workers may have overlooked.

Linda Herman, administrative manager at the city’s Public Works Department, said an estimated 45 to 50 tons of debris were delivered to the landfill during the 2013 Drop & Dash. Gonzalez estimates about an equal amount of material was diverted and kept out of the dump to be reused or recycled.

Gonzalez further explained that the city receives a grant to cover the landfill fees from Butte County. The two local trash-hauling companies, Recology and North Valley Waste Management, provide the dumpsters and haul them to the landfill for free. The only cost to the city is to provide workers at the sites, and Gonzalez said the event is a win-win for everyone involved.

“Before we started this, the alleyways used to be so polluted that it would take weeks to get them cleaned up, which took hours and hours of staff time and city funds that we just don’t have any more,” he said, admitting some illegal dumping still does occur this time of year. “It happens, but compared to 10 years ago, it’s just a fraction of the amount of trash we’d have to clean up.”