Initiative Background & History
Solving the Problem of Mismanaged Garbage in Fort Lauderdale Neighborhoods
A Brief History
In 1986 the Riverside Park Residents’ Association, as part of its Neighborhood Master Plan, proposed to the City of Fort Lauderdale that the dumpsters serving multi-unit properties (which at the time were positioned permanently in swales) be moved away from the street and enclosed, with more stringent enforcement of the chronic conditions of being open and/or overflowing.
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission adopted that recommendation citywide and gave property owners using dumpsters a full ten years to comply.
In 1996 property owners (who had largely disregarded the compliance extension period) demanded that dumpster reform be “revisited”, but the City Commission only gave them another short extension to, at long last, come into compliance.
Now, 36 years after those garbage management ordinances were passed, most dumpsters are no longer along neighborhood streets, but many remain open and/or overflowing (as well as improperly enclosed) due to a combination of property owner cost-saving business models, current code enforcement constraints, and the limited effectiveness of Magistrate Courts where code cases are filed.
The goal of this initiative is to finally solve the problem of open and overflowing dumpsters that has evaded attention, enforcement and resolution for 36 years.
Understanding the Life/Safety Issue
The State of Florida Health Department has determined that human waste is inherently bio-hazardous and may not be thrown out like common trash is.
Accordingly, the human waste generated by every hospital, medical and dental clinic is required by State law (as well as by OSHA) to be carefully packaged to protect the clinic personnel, the transporters of the waste, and the public from contact with infectious pathogens that may be directly contacted or become airborne from anything that’s been in contact with human blood, feces, sperm, urine, puss, mucous, saliva, fungus, psoriatic skin, pubic hairs and assorted secretions.
Because animals produce similar infectious by-products, veterinary clinics are also required to strictly manage the waste they generate.
As this relates to dumpsters in neighborhoods, it’s crucial to realize that household garbage is just as dangerous as medical waste is because it typically contains the same bio-hazardous materials on such everyday things as baby and adult diapers, condoms, needles, tampons, band aids, hemorrhoid pads, anal wipes, dental detritus, psoriasis flakes, pubic hairs, ear wax, fungal nail clippings, personal protection equipment such as masks and gloves, and even bedding.
In addition to these human contaminates, household garbage commonly contains pet feces, urine and parasites as well rotting food – all of which, if not properly contained, exposes nearby residents to disease-causing bacteria and viruses.
In fact, the National Centers for Disease Control affirmatively states: “Several studies have compared the microbial load and the diversity of microorganisms in residential wastes and wastes obtained from a variety of health-care settings.1399–1402 Although hospital wastes have a greater number of different bacterial species compared with residential waste, wastes from residences were more heavily contaminated.1397, 13″
There are five ways that mismanaged infectious garbage can affect – and infect – nearby residents and the general population:
1) By direct contact with spilled garbage
2) By tic-infested rodents eating garbage in open dumpsters and then migrating nearby
3) By flies and cockroaches eating the garbage in open dumpsters and then migrating nearby
4) By mosquitos breeding in the rainwater that collects in open, thus enabling the breeding of mosquitos that spread diseases
5) By aerosolized particles of the infectious garbage that, when becoming airborne out of open dumpsters, can enter a person’s body through their nose, mouth or wound
6) By aerosolized particles of the rotting garbage that, when becoming airborne out of open dumpsters, contribute to general air pollution in the form of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane
7) By decomposing spilled garbage contaminating surface waters, affecting all ecosystems
Failure to secure household garbage in tightly closed containers thus constitutes a dangerous variety of clear and present health hazards that should be prevented by vigorous enforcement of the City of Fort Lauderdale’s sanitation codes to protect neighborhood residents – and the environment – from the diseases and pollution that emanate from open dumpsters.
The Enforcement Dilemma
While profiteering absentee landlords are exposing their tenants and nearby residents to disease-causing pathogens emanating from open dumpsters, for all the efforts of its code enforcement staff, the City of Fort Lauderdale currently lacks effective punishments to stop the violations because fines and liens can be – and are being – outright ignored. Thus, landlords are actually incentivized to repeat their sanitation violations inasmuch as they can continue to save money by declining to invest in proper maintenance while avoiding meaningful financial punishment.
Worthy of note regarding property owners’ ability to indefinitely evade punishment for sanitation violations is the fact that anyone found in violation of a traffic violation (even a harmless parking meter ticket) could never hope to sidestep the imposed fine for very long; the City of Fort Lauderdale – and eventually the State of Florida – will in all certainty catch up with them to either collect the fine, or suspend their drivers license, or even put them in jail if the fine goes unpaid.
The unyielding authority and ability of our City to collect parking meter fines (when no one is endangered) vs. its inability to punish sanitation violators (who directly endanger public health) is profoundly incommensurate and needs to be remedied.
The indicated Solution
1. Affirm that sanitation ordinances are laws worthy of enforcement, just as parking and other ordinances are.
2. Officially designate open dumpsters as a public health issue, and therefore a Life/Safety violation.
3. Develop punishments that more effectively dis-incentivize property owners from exposing neighborhood residents to open dumpster biohazards, mosquito breeding, parasites, and resulting diseases.*
*Pathogens present in biohazardous waste, bacteria infested garbage, parasite-infested vermin and mosquito- infested standing water are documented to spread diseases that include typhoid fever, food poisoning, enteric fever, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, influenza, pneumonia, diarrhea, tetanus, whooping cough, cholera, skin diseases, respiratory allergies, Zika virus, West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, dengue, and malaria.
A Strategy Proposal:
Encourage Fort Lauderdale government and staff to enact the above three measures by presenting the City Commission with a resolution asking that open dumpsters be designated as a priority life/safety issue requiring enforcement that is more effective.
When the City of Fort Lauderdale designates mismanaged garbage as a life/safety issue requiring decisive action, assemble a team to assess the problem and recommend any changes to enforcement methods, municipal ordinances and prosecution methodology that would better protect the health of its residents. Ideally, team would include:
A City Commissioner with health expertise – to encourage his or her fellow City Commissioners, Mayor and City Manager to recognize the severity of the open dumpster problem and then authorize the assembly of the team to study it and make recommendations
The City Manager – to assemble, oversee and coordinate the team
The Mayor – to research how (or if) other Florida Cities effectively deal with repeat sanitation violators
Director of Code Enforcement – to answer the question of how repeat violations can persist for years at the same location, interrupted by only occasional compliance, illuminate any causal limitations that may be due to State Law or any understaffing, and to discuss improved enforcement of Municipal Ordinance 24-4 (that requires the designation of the persons responsible for the sanitation and other maintenance of multiunit properties) by developing or refining a data base for easily contacting the responsible persons so they may be quickly held accountable
City Attorney – to affirm that sanitation ordinances are laws worthy of enforcement just as parking and other ordinances are, to clarify why continuing and repeat sanitation violations can go on for years at the same location with only occasional compliance, to clarify why property owners are given weeks to comply with sanitation ordinances, to clarify the limitations of the Magistrate Court process wherein fines and liens imposed for a sanitation violation can be ignored indefinitely, to illuminate State Law’s role in those limitations, to craft possible legal work-arounds of those limitations, to explore the possibility of issuing N.T.A.’s rather than going to Magistrate Court, to discuss the development of potential regulations for dumpster vendors (e.g. encouraging or requiring dumpster vendors to return containers into their proper positions with the lids closed rather than open), to discuss the potential requirement that dumpsters have lids that automatically close after emptying, to illuminate the intent and enforcement of Municipal Ordinance 24-4, to discuss eliminating the exemption of grandfathered violations from the City’s requirement of full code compliance as a condition of appealing code liens, to revisit the practicality (and practice, if any) of Municipal Ordinance 24-27 (b) where it authorizes city workers to return garbage carts left at the street to an “appropriate location” with a fee then being imposed by the City and to clarify if residents’ reports of life/safety issues are exempt from the State’s requirement of complainant being identified.
City Prosecutor – to clarify the viability is issuing N.T.A’s rather than using Magistrate Court
Chief of Police – to identify sanitation offenses that may be subject to arrest, and discuss viability
Sanitation vendors – to be made aware of their responsibilities in public sanitation (e.g. returning dumpsters into enclosures with the lids closed rather than open) and to cooperate voluntarily or via regulation
Neighborhood representatives who live with the problem – to explain how mismanaged garbage affects them, to remind the team that the health and well-being of Fort Lauderdale residents is at stake as the current system leaves them defenseless against repeat and defiant sanitation violators
The full City Commission – In the name of, and with the goal of, public health, enact any recommendations for enhanced sanitation enforcement that are developed by the team.
The Resolution
WHEREAS
Personal safety, fundamental sanitation, environmental cleanliness and general order are the foundations of daily human quality of life, and
WHEREAS
The State of Florida Health Department and O.S.H.A have determined that human waste such as blood, feces, sperm, urine, puss, mucous, parasites, saliva, fungus, psoriasis and assorted secretions, as well as discarded personal protective equipment (PPE’s) such as masks and gloves are inherently infectious bio-hazards and accordingly require such materials that are generated by hospitals and clinics to be secured and disposed of securely to protect public health, and
WHEREAS
Household garbage put in dumpsters typically contains the same bio-hazardous materials listed above on baby and adult diapers, needles, condoms, tampons, band aids, hemorrhoid pads, anal wipes, dental detritus, psoriasis flakes, ear wax, nail clippings, pubic hairs – and even bedding – and thus exposes the public to aerosolized (airborne) bio-hazards when dumpster lids are left open, and
WHEREAS
The National Centers for Disease Control has concluded that residential waste is even more contaminated than medical waste is, and
WHEREAS
In addition to these human contaminates, household garbage typically contains pet feces, urine and parasites as well as rotting food – all of which, if a dumpster is left open, exposes nearby residents to additional disease-causing bacteria and viruses that can also become airborne and/or be spread by rats and insects that are attracted into an open dumpster, and
WHEREAS
Any standing water, including rain water that collects in open dumpsters, enables the breeding of mosquitos that spread dangerous diseases, and
WHEREAS
Open, overflowing and leaking garbage containers contribute to general air and water pollution that endangers wildlife as well as humans, and
WHEREAS
Fort Lauderdale’s current system of enforcement of its sanitation ordinances allows property owners with mismanaged dumpsters to disregard fines that are recommended by the City and imposed Special Magistrate Courts, leaving residents defenseless, and
WHEREAS
The world has entered an era of heightened awareness that humans generate bacterial and viral contaminates that are inherently infectious and potentially deadly to other humans and is making significant adjustments accordingly with the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida having the opportunity to lead the way in responsive and responsible public health policy
NOW THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED BY THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE RIVERSIDE PARK RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION
That mismanagement of household garbage disposal, particularly open and overflowing dumpsters, should be recognized by the City of Fort Lauderdale as being a life/safety issue and therefore a code enforcement priority that requires improved enforcement techniques, the cooperation of dumpster vendors, better use of the court system to impose and collect fines, and changes to the City’s sanitation ordinances if necessary.