Illegal trash dumping in Kansas City used to be a big issue — with garbage and big items like mattresses ending up in vacant lots, especially in the city's low-income areas.
And while that is still a concern, the situation seems to be improving after Council passed an ordinance last year that increases penalties for offenders.
The city is now seeing a higher amount of cases investigated and prosecuted — plus clean-ups of long-standing dumping sites.
Kansas City Council member Crispin Rea, who sponsored the ordinance, told KCUR's Up To Date that illegal dumping has been an intractable problem that the city has dealt with for decades.
"I was excited to get an update from our neighborhood staff recently that showed our response times to cleaning up these sites are down by 30%. So, we're getting there quicker," Rea said.
"We're investigating and we're cleaning them up. The resolution of cases has increased by 30%, so not only are we cleaning them up quicker, but we're resolving them."