Chad Livsey has spent the past seven years removing improperly discarded furniture and other hard-to-recycle litter from Atlanta neighborhoods, but he says he has yet to encounter a dumping site as daunting as this one in southeast Atlanta.
The Snellville native commemorated Earth Day by responding to a tip he received one year ago about the dense woodlands near the condemned Forest Cove apartments in Thomasville Heights, where mounds of used tires have been dumped amongst the greenery.
Livsey estimates that the more than 400 tires he has removed from the site represent less than a quarter of the sum that remain strewn throughout the forest.
“Imagine thousands of tires over acres,” said Livsey, who calls the dump site one of America’s most egregious. “It’s been done for generations, and you can just see this is environmental racism.”
Illegal dumping is a persistent issue in predominantly Black neighborhoods in south and west Atlanta, according to residents who say their communities have seen little relief from the problem that poses environmental and health hazards.
Aside from dragging down a community’s property value, improperly discarded waste can contaminate soil and drinking water. Illegally dumped tires collect water, which allows rodents and mosquitoes to harbor and potentially spread disease, according to Sara Lips, spokesperson for Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division.
Livsey decided to create the solution he wanted to see via the Chad Livsey Project, a nonprofit he founded in 2020 to advocate against and tackle illegal dumping and litter around Atlanta. With the help of volunteers, the organization removed more than 28,000 pounds of waste from communities in and around Atlanta last year, according to its website.
The group’s efforts are vital in Atlanta, a city that does not accept tires through its trash collection programs for residents. Kimberly Rankins, communications director of the city’s Department of Public Works, said tires must be disposed of differently than other types of trash due to its classification as a hard-to-recycle item.
“Tires are a completely different beast,” said Livsey. “They leach so much [that] they break down into the soil. It is a major issue. It’s not just Atlanta. … Countrywide, we don’t know what to do with tires.”
Livsey said he moved to New York in 2010 after graduating from Georgia State University. Upon returning to Atlanta seven years later, he remembers being saddened to find parts of the city covered in litter.
“My hometown was getting trashed,” he said. “I didn’t wait for politicians or anybody else — I just started picking up and cleaning streets by myself.”
His nonprofit grew through community support and donations, which Livsey said allows volunteers to respond to cleanup requests, bag trash, and contact city employees to recycle or otherwise dispose of it.
Livsey, who now lives in Summerhill, said he’s noticed through his work that Black communities are more likely to experience litter problems due to environmental racism, poverty, and disinvestment.
“In doing this work, you see all the shortcomings of the government, of corporations,” he said. “We did a cleanup in Grove Park off of Bankhead. … Our bags sat there for months.”
Khalifa Lee, chair of Neighborhood Planning Unit H — which includes Adamsville, Bankhead, and adjacent neighborhoods — said residents frequently complain about illegal dumping in community meetings and report that surveillance cameras in known dumping spots often fail to operate properly.
Lee said efforts to clear local dumping sites have been futile, as they quickly reaccumulate litter.
“It’s daunting how they’ve been ensuring that we don’t see the quality and beauty of our community,” said Lee.
Rankins, with Atlanta’s Department of Public Works, said city initiatives like the Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Team provide weekly monitoring of known dump sites to provide education and enforcement on litter, and Public Works officials monitor surveillance cameras in an attempt to deter illegal dumping in known problem areas.
Rankins added that the city collects tires from residents at a Greenbriar Mall recycling event the third Saturday of every month. She also noted that the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials accepts tires but requires an appointment and a fee.
Lips said recycling tires can be costly, which can result in people choosing to illegally dump them instead.
Livsey said he submitted a complaint to the Environmental Protection Division to have the remaining tires at the Thomasville Heights dumping site recycled. He acknowledged that other city initiatives like the expansion of walking trails and parks can help increase community pride and beautification, but he insisted that there aren’t enough city programs for litter cleaning.
“We clean up every area that we can,” said Livsey. “But for years, there was no funding. I was doing this by myself. … You have to become a super citizen, that’s just what it is.”
