'We will find you': Pittsburgh officials start illegal dumping crackdown

Pittsburgh will be using hidden, high-resolution cameras to catch people dumping at sites around the city and Mayor Bill Peduto is proposing changes in the city’s laws to strengthen the penalties for those who are caught.

“We will find you,” Peduto said. “We will have cameras up at those locations. We will get your plate numbers and we will have you come back to that neighborhood and clean the neighborhood.”

The cameras will be purchased by the Clean Pittsburgh Commission, a group of city officials and community groups that work on anti-litter, illegal dumping and recycling programs. They will be placed at undisclosed locations known to be dumping grounds, Peduto said.

On Monday, Peduto was joined by community leaders and city officials to announce the new crackdown.

About 800 illegal dump sites have been identified throughout the city, Peduto said.

A 2020 study of nine Pennsylvania cities including Pittsburgh found that illegal dumping and litter costs Pennsylvanians nearly $70 million each year.

The crackdown is part of a new plan to address the problem. It is called the city’s Goals on Littering and Dumping (GOLD) plan. It creates a unified approach to the problem, Pittsburgh Department of Public Works anti-litter specialist Christopher Mitchell said.

At present, people with complaints about litter and dumping may deal with several city agencies to rectify the problem, as the response depends on what and where the litter is, Mitchell said.

The GOLD plan was crafted to simplify the response.

“This way we don’t have to ask a series of questions to find out the answer of who this needs to go to. We ask one, ‘Is there trash on the ground?’,” Mitchell said.

Monday’s announcement was lauded by community leaders who have been working with the city to combat the issue for years.

They include Donna Jackson, chair of the Larimer Consensus Group, which is working to transform vacant areas of the neighborhood into community gardens and an orchard.

But the neighborhood is among the places in the city where there are vacant areas that are used as dumping grounds.

“This dumping is a true problem,” Jackson said.