California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched an initiative called Clean California in July 2021, and progress on the project has been successful. According Gov. Newsom’s website, employees have cleared over two million cubic yards of trash than projected this year.
Caltrans, or the California Department of Transportation removed 267,000 cubic yards of trash in 2020. Through Clean CA, it was projected it would remove an additional 1.2 million cubic yards of trash from the state highway system alone, according to Gov. Newsom’s website.
To date, the $1 billion project has cleared 2 million cubic yards of litter from roadsides and employed 8,700 people according to Gov. Newsom’s website.
Caltrans estimates that Clean CA will create an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 jobs by 2024. These will include jobs and opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, at-risk youth and people re-entering society following incarceration, according to the same website.
Sociology assistant professor Preston Rudy said it’s striking that public spaces are not cared for in California.
“In my opinion, the job creation program is one way to address the absence of jobs for many California citizens and solve the public trash problem that is pervasive,” Rudy stated in an email. “These are not individual problems that are solvable by means of individual responsibility, they are public problems that affect all of us.”
Rudy stated the plan may give employees temporary resources to avoid poverty or homelessness, and the results of their work will likely give significant results.
“Long-term solutions will require an array of programs to repair our society,” he stated. “A jobs program is one piece of that larger puzzle, because it is likely that homelessness in particular is a major cause of the pervasive trash we see in public spaces.”
Rudy also stated that social problems like these need to confront profiteering and privatization of public programs.
“This program is perhaps a possibility for changing the assumptions we have about public programs as effective solutions to social and environmental problems,” he said.
“Environmental problems more particularly are only going to be solved collectively and by means of leadership from state institutions,” he stated.
Deb Kramer, executive director for Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, said she co-hosted a cleanup event with Caltrans at Selma Olinder Park along Coyote Creek.
“In terms of job creation, my sense is that a lot of this money will go directly to consultants for program and project design, and to agencies to hire people,” she said through email. “And, some of it goes to existing programs so that the agency doesn't have to pull from their general fund.”
Kramer said the types of jobs created are what matters most.
“Low paying jobs for trash collection are not as valuable to the economy and environment as education since education assumes deterring trash creation,” she said.
Katherine Kao Cushing, environmental studies chair and associate professor, said any program that provides economic security to vulnerable individuals is a win-win.
Cushing is also a senior advisor for CommUniverCity, a community building partnership between San José State University, the city and underserved neighborhoods in San José, according to its website.
“In San José, Mayor (Sam) Liccardo initiated a ‘Cash for Trash’ program aimed at some of the same goals,” Cushing said through email.
“Cash for Trash is a collaborative programIn collaboration with the BeautifySJ initiative and Mastercard. They provided garbage bags and debit cards to homeless residents to pick up trash for up to $20 per day. Each bag they brought to program officials would equate to $4, according to an ABC7 article.
Cushing said the program paid a modest sum to those collecting trash and was difficult to implement during the pandemic.
“(Littering) is often one of the top three resident concerns CommUniverCity SJSU staff hear about at neighborhood association meetings,” Cushing said.
She said both plant disease and litter are both unsightly and have other significant and negative impacts on the environment.
“Litter is a huge source of contamination for local creeks, the Bay and the coast. Most aquatic debris originates from land litter,” Cushing said. “Programs like the ones that will be funded by this program, if implemented properly, can be an effective way of keeping our waterways clean.”
