Volunteers try to lift Pittsburgh out of the dumps
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There's a reason why "down in the dumps" means what it does, and you could visit any of 279 known sites in the city to feel that way. We'll start with Duck Hollow, between the Monongahela River and a railroad line, where it appears contractors have tipped to avoid landfill tipping fees.
At least three dump trucks could fill up on the trash that has accumulated there since Joe Divack and Derek Green helped clear it last fall. Along the tracks and down the hillside, debris sits in piles and hangs enmeshed in invasive overgrowth: tires, roofing material, siding, windows, cabinets, landscaping debris, a TV frame and motherboard, bulging black bags and old carpet so embedded it looks like orange fungus that grows in rectangular strips.
"People in our region can exhibit shockingly bad behavior," said Mr. Divack, a retired behavioral therapist who received a "Bob Award" as Volunteer of the Year last week from the Clean Pittsburgh Commission. "We foul our own nest."
Boris Weinstein, founder of Citizens Against Litter and a Clean Pittsburgh Commission member, introduced Mr. Divack to Mr. Green last fall. The two men have, with one or two other volunteers, cleaned up 15 illegal dump sites since then. Mr. Green said 279 "sounds daunting, but if we can get 40 or 50 volunteers, we should be able clean 150 this year."
The campaign to clear the city of illegal dumps is the sole project of Mr. Green's nonprofit, stashthetrash.org. He bought the domain name last fall and has used social networking sites like Facebook to gather volunteers. He hopes that some contractors will join the fight.
His plan is to find stewards for each cleaned site "to maintain it and call us if they need help."
The effort will focus in Greenfield this spring. Greenfield has 20 known dump sites, more than any other neighborhood.
One day last week, Mr. Green and Mr. Divack toured the sites with a reporter.
"There's my pile," said Mr. Divack as he drove through a gravel lot toward an office chair, a shopping cart, a bunch of tires, stacks of lumber and bags and bags of trash. The pile sat behind homes along Calvary Cemetery in Greenfield. "We're hoping public works will pick this up soon," he said.
Mr. Divack, who retired last year, said he had "never done anything about the Pittsburgh environment except complain." He came to Pittsburgh in 1962. He had his "Eureka!" moment last year.
"My wife and I have relatives buried in a cemetery in Sheraden. It is surrounded by woods, and for years, I've noticed the trash outside the chain link fence. I just decided one day to clean it up. When you're paying your respects to loved ones, you shouldn't be seeing broken toilets."
First Published March 29, 2010 12:00 am
