Animals in Tahoe trash a continual problem

By Kathryn Reed

Mattresses continue to be the No. 1 large bulk item that Clean Tahoe picks up. Televisions are a close second.

Catherine Cecchi, executive director of the nonprofit, updated the South Lake Tahoe City Council on Tuesday about what her organization has been up to.

“We have a number of problem properties where a bear or other animals are in Dumpsters every night,” Cecchi said. “We’ve posted signs on Dumpsters. Some don’t have lock bars or a clip.”

Eventually, repeat offenders get referred to the city’s code enforcement officers. Cecchi said improvement comes when code enforcement gets involved.

In the past year, the two Clean Tahoe crewmembers have gone to 1,657 illegal dumpsites in the city. Between the city and in the basin portion of El Dorado County 583 cubic yards of trash have been picked up.

Earlier in the Dec. 10 meeting, South Tahoe Refuse President Jeff Tillman said that starting March 3 trash pick up will start at 7am.

“We hope residents will no longer put garbage out the night before,” Tillman said.

This is designed to cut down on the number of animals getting into garbage and creating a mess.

Clean Tahoe is looking at getting a grant for bear resistant containers to help with the chronic garbage problems.