San Diego is replacing trash bins, providing dumpsters and offering up free debris pickup to neighborhoods hit hard by flooding as the fallout continues from last month’s historic storm.
Bilingual staffers with the city’s environmental services department visited dozens of homes in the Southcrest neighborhood Saturday morning to both take orders for and deliver new trash, recycling and composting containers.
Officials said they’ve increased in-person visits around the city since the Jan. 22 rain and hope by going door-to-door during weekends and, soon, evenings they’ll catch more people at home.
Larger dumpsters are also available, although neither they nor traditional bins should be filled with hazardous waste: paint, batteries, light bulbs, medication, cleaning chemicals, pesticides, oil and the like.
At Southcrest Community on Saturday, February 17, 2024, in San Diego, CA, Miguel Gomez received a free trash container from San Diego Environmental Services.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The city will pick up any of those items for free. Residents who want to schedule a pick up or order new bins should call (858) 694-7000.
There is no charge for anyone who needs larger dumpsters for flood debris, according to Andrea Deleon, interim deputy director at the waste reduction division of the city’s environmental services department.
At Southcrest Community on Saturday, February 17, 2024, in San Diego, CA, San Diego Environmental Services distributed close to 100 trash bins to home owners as replacements free of charge.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The six staffers working Saturday spent much of their time on Beta Street, near Southcrest Trails Park.
That area was hit especially hard by flooding. Earlier in the week, during a damage tour with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many houses still looked unlivable.
One home was wrapped in caution tape, while thick plastic blocked entry to another. A third looked completely gutted and parts of the neighborhood seemed to be an active construction zone. Enormous metal dumpsters overflowing with trash were parked near several sidewalks while a jackhammer rattled in the background.
The environmental department also plans to visit neighborhoods in South Bay, especially San Ysidro.
