Illegal Dumping Reaching Epic Proportions

We've written before about nimrods who illegally dump furniture and other household detritus on Flatbush Avenue corners, but lately the corner at Hawthorne has gotten out of control, with piles of broken furniture pieces stacked precariously on top of one another. Every week, there's a new pile of garbage. Clearly more than a household or two is contributing. If you see anyone dumping, or notice that some buildings along Flatbush never seem to put garbage out, please file a report with the Department of Sanitation. Here's the online form.

Comments

[babs]

Wow - that's disgusting. I suspect that a lot of this illegal dumping is done by commercial establishments, which are required to pay private carters rather than use city sanitation services. That broken-up furniture, for example, could have come from a store under renovation on Flatbush Avenue, or be the debris from an apartment renovation (again, the landlord is supposed to use a dumpster to collect this stuff and have it hauled off by a provate company).

[carrie]

Most of the debris is residential. There's always tons of broken children's toys, nightstands, and that kind of thing. I suspect that one of the landlords of buildings near that corner is to blame... babs, do you know if landlords with mixed use buildings along Flatbush have to pay for the residential trash pickup (or just for the business)? If they don't have to pay for residential pickup, I don't understand why they wouldn't just put the junk in front of the residence... though perhaps I guess it's more convenient to dump garbage whenever you feel like it than to wait for designated garbage days. Often the huge piles will appear on a Friday or Saturday night.

[babs]

I think it's just the commercial businesses that are required to use private carting. I'd imagine anything being dumped from the residential units is a problem with the building's super (or lack thereof). Very often these smaller buildings will only have a part-time super (or none at all) who is probably just dumping the stuff whenever it gets too overwhelming to be kept in the hallway of the building, or it may be being done by the residents themselves, if the building doesn't have a super and/or doesn't provide appropriate trash facilities. If anyone can identify the building(s) in question, I can try to find out who the owners are and contact them directly.

[Corey]

I took had a similar pile (near the Empire/Flatbush entrance to the train) taken care of by using the 311 application for the iPhone. I took a picture, GPS tagged it, and uploaded it all within the application. They took care of it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the pile reappeared after about a week. I just wish the inhabitants of PLG and surrounding neighborhoods had a little more pride in disposing of trash and dog waste.

[Jeanne]

Maybe enlist help from those who pass by at night when the dumping is done. Print out signs with big block letters and tape it to these illegal garbage piles every time you see them, saying: WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON WHO ILLEGALLY DUMPS TRASH HERE CALL 311

Or the sign could say take a photo of the person doing the dumping and email it to an email address you create for this purpose.

[Carmen]

At 4:15 today while en-route to pick my daughter up from school, I observed a dark teal minivan pull up to the corner of Bedford and Fenimore. An African American older man got out and began to unload what looked like construction garbage and put it in the bin on the corner. I immediately started to yell at him. The driver, a Hasidic man, told his passenger to continue unloading. In the minivan there were pieces of drywall, pieces of wood, broken furniture paint pails and other items. I continued to yell at his passenger, which caused him to stop unloading the minivan and they drove off. I got the license plate # (EFN7294). In the garbage bin right now are pails with leftover white paint and miscellaneous household garbage.

Aside from the illegal dumping, the driver almost ran me and my baby over when he ran the red light and parked ON THE SIDEWALK right next to the garbage can.

[carrie]

Did you call 311 to report it? If not, please do! Meanwhile, if anyone can find a name that this license number is linked to, let me know. Sometimes public shaming is the best medicine...

carrie

[Carmen]

Yup, called 311 and DSNY and filed two complaints. I sooo wish I had my camera with me.