Who & what is keeping Columbus from being beautiful? Illegal dumping at an all-time high

While trying to enjoy a walk along the Chattahoochee Riverwalk or a drive through the city streets of Columbus, locals regularly run into environmental ruin from illegally dumped trash.

It’s more than many city leaders can remember, and they are losing the battle.

Tattered blankets and plastic cups idle in streams. Tires, glass and personal trash pile up in wooded areas along the riverwalk. Forrest Road, Victory Drive, and Buena Vista Road remain common areas that consistently have pieces of furniture on sidewalks or in abandoned lots.

Right now, the speed at which the unsightly trash is left or dumped is outpacing the city’s ability to effectively respond.

From North Columbus to Uptown to East Columbus, South Columbus, and everywhere in between hot spots of illegal dumping is ubiquitous, despite round-the-clock efforts by the city, and various agencies assigned to combat the growing problem.

Despite public and private groups working to combat this issue - the city’s own Keep America Beautiful affiliate, Keep Columbus Beautiful (KCB) - the illegal dumping has reached crisis levels, according to stakeholders interviewed. Many said the problem became much worse during the pandemic.

So, who is responsible? And why the recent rise in illegal dumping?

“Homeless camps and illegal dumping are at an all-time high,” said Michelle Brown-Mang, deputy director of Public Works. “I’ve been with the city 36 years and we’ve always had it in rural areas. It’s taken a turn in the last three or four years. Piles of trash have turned into sofas, mattresses, tires, and bigger household items like water heaters.”

Calls and email requests to 311 and the illegal dumping hotline were at a staggering 262 in 2021. It was followed with 198 incidents in 2022, another 124 in 2023, and in the first two months of 2024 there have been 16 reports. That’s around 600 reports of illegal dumping in the past 3 years and two months.

“We [Public Works Community Service Division] will go out one day to clean up and two days later it looks like we haven’t been there at all,” Mang said.

Five full-time workers within the Community Service Division of Public Works and six part-time workers pick up abandoned or dumped trash. Mang said there are seven vacant part-time positions. Probationers in the criminal justice system are reported to assist with this type of service, but Mang noted the number of probationers “fluctuates daily, and have been utilized across other departments.”

The nonprofit, Keep Columbus Beautiful (KCB), tackles the issue from an education, events, and advocacy lens, galvanizing the community to help in whatever way they can.

“I get calls every day from individuals saying they want to help or have a company-wide clean-up day,” Executive Director of KCB Lisa Thomas-Cutts said. “If we’re getting these calls it means we’re going in the right direction.”

Cutts and her assistant are a small team of two, under the umbrella of the city manager, and supported by a board of 17 combined nonprofit and commissioner members. One of the board members, John Brent, has been involved with KCB since the old executive director, Gloria Smart started the affiliate in 1999. He officially joined the board in 2012. Before that, Brent was Chief of the Environmental Division at Fort Moore in 1993.

“I’m very disappointed in the Columbus area,” Brent said. “The citizens of Columbus are responsible and accountable for this problem.”

KCB has a small budget, which is typical for most Keep America Beautiful affiliates, Keep Georgia Beautiful Director Natalie Johnston-Russell said.

“I’m tasked to get out there and engage people to be better stewards of our community, combating litter and blight,” Cutts said. “We partner with public works to host events like Arbor Day. We all work together.”

It’s unclear how the group measures progress or success.

“The affiliates’ role is bringing volunteers together to raise community awareness,” Johnston-Russell said.

Two weeks ago, KCB received the Governor’s Circle Recognition award. Forty-eight out of the 70 affiliates in Georgia won this award, Johnston-Russell said, for being in good standing with the program by attending programs, training, and staying engaged with their community.

“We’re not going to clean up out of this issue,” Johnston-Russell said. “It’s about engaging communities, raising awareness, and looking into underlying issues unique to each community.”

Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful (KMBB) also won the Governor’s Circle Recognition award. Asha Ellen, the executive director of KMBB shares a similar model to KCB with a small staff (Ellen and two part-time staff) receiving staff and administrative salaries from the city and grant money for events and operations.

“Excessive litter and illegal dumping are challenges across the country—Macon and Columbus are not excluded from that.”

Macon opened up what Ellen called “convenient centers” with plans to open a few more. They are essentially giant lots where people can drop off their old sofas, and mattresses, to help curb some of the illegal dumping.

“It’s free and all they have to do is show their proof of residency,” Ellen said.

The program is a few years old. Messaging this option to the community is Ellen’s biggest and latest task.

Public Works, City Tactics

The other branch of public works that serves 206,000 Columbus citizens is Integrated Waste Service. This department is responsible for picking up recycling, yard waste, and trash in the blue, green and black waste bins. The city offers a “bulky day” pick-up for large items like couches or furniture that has been around for decades.

“Once a week we offer bulk item collection,” John Pittman the Integrated Waste Manager said in email. “The customer is made aware of this when they sign up for services. The customer has to call 311 to schedule a bulk pick-up and that will be scheduled on their next household garbage collection day.”

To combat a spike in crime and an apparent increase in dumping, the city began installing cameras across town in the illegal dumping “hot spots” in 2022, spending $3.2 million for roughly 600 cameras. It’s unclear how much of that pool of money supported just the current figure of 20 illegal dumping cameras.

The Community Service Coordinator has spotted 20 events on the cameras from the two times a day he monitors them during the work week. So far just two have been ticketed and prosecuted with a fine of $1,500.

“The fine was larger than the typical $1,000 fine because it was the third occurrence of the offender,” Mang said in an email. Mang also said Inspections and Codes has issued two citations for illegal dumping on Matilda Lane, both citizens were fined $500.

Renee Bator, professor of psychology at New York State University, Plattsburg has studied behavior toward littering for over a decade.

“Fines are external motivators,” Bator said. “People only refrain if they think they are going to get caught. You want people to feel like they are part of a community and be litter-free. It’s important seeing people clean up to spark a norm that ‘you shouldn’t litter’”

Furthermore, in a collaboration study, Bator found that messaging needs to be aligned.

“You don’t want to have messaging that is telling people not to litter in places that are heavily littered.” Instead, she said, “emphasize that people want a clean park, most people are doing the right thing.”

An added wrench in the illegal dumping and trash problem in Columbus are homeless encampments.

Homelessness in Columbus increased by 11% in January 2024, as compared to the year before, according to Pat Frey, Vice President of United Way.

“There was a decrease in homeless from 2016 to 2022, then it increased in the last two years,” she said.

“We have a system set up. The city will call and asks us to help people before they remove an encampment,” she said. “Because, well, we’ve done it a lot.”

Public works or other city employees call United Way to let them know about groups illegally camping on public property. United Way notifies the camp and gives them seven days to leave.

“They take everything that they need, usually”, Frey said. “What’s left is trash that they don’t want.”

Frey then coordinates with Public works and gets them to come out and clear the rest of the trash.

United Way goes back to previous encampments on a regular basis to make sure they engage and let people know they can’t be here.

Between illegal littering and encampment leftovers, Frey said illegal littering is the much bigger problem, and the community and citizens are responsible for looking out for their neighborhood.

“There are mattresses on the side of the road on Buena Vista Road and Victory Drive,” she said. “The city can’t be responsible for all of it.”

“We Need a Champion, We Want Community Help”

Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin shared a similar apprehension to Frey, saying the problem isn’t just the city’s responsibility.

“We have 206,000-plus citizens to help address the issue,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin started an “all hands on deck” campaign a few years ago as the litter and illegal dumping problem gained fortitude. Goodwin said this is one way citizens can get involved.

Two weeks ago the initiative met at Asbury United Methodist Church in South Columbus. Several city employees and a handful of Columbus officers were present as just a dozen or so citizens rode around in a METRA bus to point out where they are seeing issues.

Frey attended the meeting and rode the bus. She said this needs to happen more than once a month, at least weekly. Frey said there needs to be an action plan. She told the Ledger-Enquirer shes meeting with Reggie Lewis, Executive Advisor of Cure Violence Columbus on Thursday, March 7 to make that plan.

Mang, Goodwin, and Cutts all said there is just not enough manpower to get this done.

Cutts said she cheerleads for environmental beautification and Public Works is out there making sure they are met. “If we had additional resources we could do more,” Cutts said. “Both Public Works and KCB need more manpower.”

KCB Executive Director, Cutts is asking for more staff in this years’ budget request.