At a time when there is much uncertainty about Oakland’s future, a local engineer is trying to spread some civic pride in his hometown and the rest of the Bay Area.
Among all the trash littering the corner of 17th St. and Brush St. in Oakland is a Bay Area treasure. His name is Andy Wang.
Andy makes his living as an engineer in Livermore, but his goal is to beautify communities in the Bay Area by cleaning up areas where illegal waste is dumped.
“It just doesn’t have to be this way,” he said. “I just want to help the community. No one deserves to live in an environment with trash and other disgusting things lying around.”
He typically does this three to four times a week and has reached communities all over the Bay Area.
“San Francisco, San Jose, Hayward, Vallejo, Concord and Oakley, Milpitas – I’ve even found illegal dumping in Pleasanton,” he said. “It’s kind of a whack-a-mole problem.”
He packages it so that public works workers can pick it up safely and efficiently, notifies them, and moves on.
“If I can help make the process a little bit easier for them, so that we can tackle the solution together, we will see results,” he said. “I do my best to help streamline it — they’re inundated, they’re drowning in requests, I just hope I can help make their lives a little bit easier.”
Andy’s big goal is to find solutions to this problem. And finding solutions, he says, will be a team effort.
“It’s not my job. People keep telling me that. I get it. But what’s wrong with a little civic pride and helping the community? People deserve clean streets,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”
He often takes before and after photos and shares them online because he wants to show people that this is a problem that can be solved with a collective effort.
“I want to inspire people and show them that this is a problem that is solvable, within our control,” he said.
And he did that.
“I have Andy’s motivation. Why don’t I come out here and try to help my community?” said John Kirkham.
Kirkham started “East Bay Trash Pandas,” a group of volunteers who regularly clean up Grizzly Peak in Berkeley, all thanks to Andy’s inspiration.
“Just seeing him do this month after month after month and setting that example is the reason I did this,” Kirkham said. “We’ve been here for about six months and have removed about 18 tons of litter and illegal dumping from the mountain.”
He too is looking for solutions to the waste and illegal dumping problem that plagues the mountain.
“I think this kind of trash sends a message that we don’t care about our common spaces,” he said. “We want UC Berkeley or Oakland to put secure, large trash cans at each of the pull-outs that they empty every week; to do weekly litter pick-ups — as we’ve been doing as volunteers — and to close down some of the problem areas for illegal dumping.”
Andy smiles when he hears about people like Kirkham.
“I hope I can inspire even more people,” he said.
It’s easy to see the contribution he’s making to society. But he wants to take it a step further: by working with city leaders to find solutions to illegal dumping.
“I’m trying to get multiple years of data and then use the data to figure out what are the solutions, are we seeing patterns, what are the real costs and how can we fix this,” he said. “I’m really interested in working with cities and sharing my ideas on how to prevent illegal dumping. You know, I’ve come up with some innovative ideas.”
He thinks changing the signage would be helpful.
“Instead of those road signs that say no dumping, a $1,000 fine, why not replace the no dumping signs and take advantage of free full-size pickups,” he said. “This is a problem that is not impossible to solve. This is something that people in the city can work on together to find a long-term solution.”
If municipalities can find ways to better prevent illegal dumping, he said the money spent on cleaning it up can be used for other things communities need.
“Illegal dumping has huge economic and environmental costs,” he said. “The millions of dollars spent on illegal dumping could be spent on creating new playgrounds, and it could be used to help the homeless.”
21 bags and a pile of rubble later, Andy has transformed another Bay Area street. If you ask him why, he will say, “Why not?”
“I’m just an average person who just tries to help out as much as I can. I care about others and I want every city in the Bay Area to thrive,” he said.
If you’d like to get involved, East Bay Trash Pandas has a cleanup planned for July 4th at 9:30am. More information about their planned cleanups can be found on the East Bay Trash Pandas website.
