It’s not the official name of the holiday, but it should be. Every year, the city of Santa Clara, holds what they call The Annual Cleanup Campaign and Miss Possible and I were totally confused by this strange ritual.
It all started last Saturday night, as we’re driving back from seeing 300, when we noticed that nearly every house in our neighborhood had a giant pile of trash at the curb and I’m not talking typical garbage. I’m talking Mattresses, Dressers, Refrigerators, Couches, Huge piles of Lawn Junk, Wooden Planks, you name it and you could find it on the street. It was a dumpster diver’s paradise (and trust me, there were plenty of scavangers on the prowl).
Basically, the way it works in California, is if you have a large item that you need to dispose of, you’re required to take it to the city dump — except on ‘Giant Garbage Day.’ Often, you need to pay to have the dump take your trash. Thus the reason behind the holiday’s popularity. People will hold on to stuff for an entire year in order to dispose of it for free at the city’s expense. One friend told me that, as a kid, he used to despise ‘Giant Trash Day’ because his grandfather would make him help clean the closets, basement & garage rooting for large items stashed throughout the year waiting for just this weekend.
As the week went on, I noticed the piles grew steadily larger. It actually became somewhat of a problem for the city, because according to the web site:
“A Clean-Up Campaign map is no longer available on the website due to concern that it is contributing to illegal dumping during the campaign by non-residents of Santa Clara.”
The piles were obviously getting out of control, and the city realized it. I had never seen or heard of such a thing until I spoke to a few of my co-workers explained the laws surrounding California trash pickup. For instance, did you know that it is illegal to throw out batteries in the State of California? They must be recycled. Who knew?
In any event, Miss Possible and I were unprepared for the holiday and will have to mark it in our calendars for next year. I don’t think we really had anything to contribute this year, but you’d better believe that we’ll be saving up our goodies to take part in next year’s festivities.
