East El Paso daycare owner is fed up about illegal dumping on her property, blames city recycling cuts

EL PASO, Texas -- Blanca Gonzalez, the owner of Little Footsteps Daycare and Learning Center in east El Paso, is fed up with the increase of illegal dumping she's been noticing at her daycare.

She believes it's a result of the suspension of blue bin recycling curbside service in the city.

In the 17 years her business has been open, Gonzalez has noticed occasional illegal dumping in the daycare's dumpster area - but this past holiday season she said the problem got worse.

"Christmas was just way over the top. I guess people just had nowhere to put their trash," Gonzalez said.

She believes the issue is due to the suspension of blue bin services in the city, but the operations manager for the city's Environmental Services Department says otherwise.

"I would not say it's tied to the suspension of the curbside recycling," said Karl Rimkus. "Contractors and do-it yourselfers often do work in their homes and then look for the closest dumpster to put their stuff in and unfortunately it's been like this for a long time, and it's an ongoing problem."

Gonzalez strongly disagreed with this response, noting that items she found in her businesses dumpster mainly included recyclable items.

"We did go through the items because I was looking for addresses and labels and we found a bunch," said Gonzalez, "I mean people don't care anymore. We have pictures of a lady in her Mercedes just dumping her trash right in front of our employees."

Rimkus offers some advice for local businesses owners who may be dealing with the same issue.

"The first thing is the last thing they think about, which is securing the area around their dumpsters," explained Rimkus, "Sometimes they're unlocked so it's very easy for people to find a way and dump their trash."

However, locked dumpsters seems to make the problem worse for Gonzalez.

"Our dumpsters are locked, which I feel created a bigger problem because people just put the trash all around the dumpsters and on top of the dumpsters," explained Gonzalez, who recently had to hire a company to pick up excess trash left on her businesses property.

She hopes the city will eventually resume curbside recycling services to prevent locals from illegally dumping on business properties like hers.

"We're already struggling as small businesses and this is just adding to it. You can't cut out a service and not offer an alternative," she said.

Residents caught illegally tossing trash will now face up to $4,000 in fines, which is twice the previous amount, according to the city.