The area around CDNews World HQ had been marvelously free of dumped household goods for years. But in the last few weeks we’ve seen a number of abandoned couches suddenly appear on the parking strips.
What surprised us the most was how easy it was to get them cleaned up. All of the parking strips between the sidewalk and the street is city property, and Seattle Public Utilities takes ownership of cleaning up anything that’s dumped there.
Just call SPU’s illegal dumping line at 206-684-7587 and they’ll send a crew out to pick up any dumped items. In our recent experience, they’ve been out there to clean things up within three or four days.
Great tip! Thanks Scott.
We were told years ago that if the dumped item is in the street it is the City’s responsibility to remove the item. If the item is on the parking strip or sidewalk it is the adjacent homeowners responsibility.
Thanks for your information.
We’ve called this number and had dumped garbage picked up from our alley several times.
Both of our recent cases were on the parking strip
No discussion here of our neighbors who are doing this? Put the damned sofas back on their own property. Jeez!
You mean, you were todl that if it was on the parking strip you should pick it up, move it into the street, then call back? :)
It’s that time of year again when the college kids’ year lease is up and they’re moving away. It’s not a big surprise there’s more furniture out than normal
The city’s actually really great about this. Years and years ago, two days before our wedding, when my husband and I were prepping to have our wedding AT our house, the neighbors down the street dumped a mountain of stuff on their parking strip. We panicked, then we called the hotline. The stuff was gone stat.
Why not just post it on the craigslist free section instead of clogging up landfills? Every time I move I do that and my stuff is gone in hours
It’s been an unspoken rule in the CD for the 15 years I’ve lived here that anything placed on a parking strip is being given away to whomever needs/wants it. If it’s not taken in a decent amount of time (say, two weeks maybe), then the owner of the item takes it to the dump or to one of the city’s big “bring it and dump it here” day locations.
I rarely see these things sit out very long!