Data report
What LA Throws Away
The couches, fridges and mattresses Los Angeles gets rid of, in numbers: what residents ask the City to pick up, where illegal dumping gets reported, and how California's trash adds up. Every figure links to its source. Free to cite with a link to this page.
The numbers at a glance
- 674,512
requests for a free bulky-item pickup were filed with MyLA311 in 2024, more than any other kind of request.[1]
- 114,268
illegal dumping pickup requests were filed in the City of LA in 2024, up from 95,732 in 2023.[1]
- 10,997
illegal dumping requests in October 2024, the busiest month of the year.[2]
- 119,096
requests to pick up metal and household appliances in 2024.[1]
- 39,579
requests for an electronic waste pickup in 2024.[1]
- 2 days
was the typical time from a bulky-item request to the City marking it closed in 2024, and 98% closed within a week.[3]
- 6.2 lbs
of trash per person per day went to disposal in California in 2024.[7]
- 1.56 million+
California mattresses were recycled through the state program in 2024.[8]
What Angelenos asked the City to haul away in 2024
MyLA311 requests of each type for the full year, and the change from 2023. Bulky-item pickup was the most requested City service of any kind.[1][5]
| Request type | Requests in 2024 | vs. 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Bulky items | 674,512 | +8.2% |
| Metal & household appliances | 119,096 | +5.1% |
| Illegal dumping pickup | 114,268 | +19.4% |
| Electronic waste | 39,579 | +3.3% |
Move-out season shows up in the pickups
Bulky-item pickup requests by month in 2024. July, the heart of moving season, was the busiest month, and January, right after the holidays, was second.[2]
Show the numbers
| Jan 2024 | 61,864 |
|---|---|
| Feb 2024 | 44,637 |
| Mar 2024 | 53,677 |
| Apr 2024 | 54,856 |
| May 2024 | 55,715 |
| Jun 2024 | 56,600 |
| Jul 2024 | 65,931 |
| Aug 2024 | 61,154 |
| Sep 2024 | 59,121 |
| Oct 2024 | 56,394 |
| Nov 2024 | 48,864 |
| Dec 2024 | 55,699 |
How long a free bulky pickup takes
For the 654,873 bulky-item requests the City closed in 2024, the typical request was closed 2 days after it was made, and 98%were closed within a week. Averages by area are below. This is the City's own record of when a request was closed, which is usually, but not always, the day of the pickup.[3]
| Area (City planning area) | Average days to closed | Typical (median) |
|---|---|---|
| Harbor | 3.8 | 2 days |
| West Los Angeles | 3.0 | 2 days |
| Central | 2.9 | 2 days |
| South Valley | 2.8 | 2 days |
| South Los Angeles | 2.8 | 1 day |
| East Los Angeles | 2.7 | 1 day |
| North Valley | 2.6 | 2 days |
Illegal dumping reports climbed through 2024
MyLA311 illegal dumping pickup requests by month. Every month from July on was higher than any month in the first half of the year, and October was the busiest.[2]
Show the numbers
| Jan 2024 | 8,885 |
|---|---|
| Feb 2024 | 7,327 |
| Mar 2024 | 8,693 |
| Apr 2024 | 8,873 |
| May 2024 | 9,096 |
| Jun 2024 | 8,198 |
| Jul 2024 | 10,853 |
| Aug 2024 | 10,391 |
| Sep 2024 | 10,901 |
| Oct 2024 | 10,997 |
| Nov 2024 | 9,297 |
| Dec 2024 | 10,757 |
Where illegal dumping was reported most
The eight neighborhood council areas with the most illegal dumping requests in 2024. These count reports, which depend on where people report as much as where dumping happens, and they say nothing about who did the dumping.[4]
| Neighborhood council area | Illegal dumping requests, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Empowerment Congress Southeast | 5,974 |
| Empowerment Congress Central | 3,584 |
| Van Nuys | 3,500 |
| Empowerment Congress North | 2,883 |
| Sun Valley Area | 2,723 |
| Voices | 2,603 |
| Reseda | 2,581 |
| Panorama City | 2,527 |
The bigger picture: California
- California generated 77.2 million tons of waste in 2024 and recycled 42% of it. 44.7 million tons went to disposal, 40.5 million of them to landfill, or 6.2 pounds per person per day.[7]
- The state mattress program recycled more than 1.56 million mattresses in 2024 and kept 65 million pounds of material out of landfills.[8]
- Recyclers in the state's electronic waste program claimed 11,577,749 pounds of old tube TVs and monitors and 56,852,728 pounds of other covered devices, like flat screens and laptops, in 2025.[9]
Getting rid of something the legal way
City of LA homes can request a free bulky-item pickup through MyLA311, and the free option is worth trying first. Our guide explains why leaving furniture at the curb counts as illegal dumping and the legal ways to get it gone. When you need it carried out today, our own crews work 8am to 8pm every day.
How we got these numbers
- The Los Angeles figures are counts we ran ourselves on the City's MyLA311 open data on September 24, 2026, by request type and by the date each request was created. The exact queries are listed under Sources, so anyone can re-run them. They cover the City of Los Angeles only, not other cities in LA County.
- 2024 is the latest complete year. The City's 2025 file stops in early 2025, when 311 moved to a new system, so we have not used it.
- A request is not the same as an item: one bulky-item request can cover several pieces, and one dumped pile can draw several reports. Our totals can differ slightly from earlier news coverage because the City updates its files over time.[6]
- The California figures are quoted as published by CalRecycle and the Mattress Recycling Council.
Using this data
Journalists, researchers and community groups are welcome to quote, chart or republish this page under CC BY 4.0. Please credit Junkline and link here, and credit the original sources for public figures. Questions: email hello@junkline.com.
Junkline, "What LA Throws Away," https://junkline.com/what-la-throws-away (accessed [date]).
Sources
- [1] City of Los Angeles Open Data, MyLA311 Service Request Data 2024. Accessed September 24, 2026.Query: https://data.lacity.org/resource/b7dx-7gc3.json?$select=requesttype,count(*)&$group=requesttype
- [2] City of Los Angeles Open Data, MyLA311 Service Request Data 2024, by month. Accessed September 24, 2026.Query: https://data.lacity.org/resource/b7dx-7gc3.json?$select=date_trunc_ym(createddate),requesttype,count(*)&$group=date_trunc_ym(createddate),requesttype
- [3] City of Los Angeles Open Data, MyLA311 Service Request Data 2024, bulky-item time from request to closed. Accessed September 24, 2026.Query: https://data.lacity.org/resource/b7dx-7gc3.json?$select=apc,median(date_diff_d(closeddate,createddate)),avg(date_diff_d(closeddate,createddate)),count(*)&$where=requesttype='Bulky Items' AND status='Closed'&$group=apc
- [4] City of Los Angeles Open Data, MyLA311 Service Request Data 2024, illegal dumping by neighborhood council. Accessed September 24, 2026.Query: https://data.lacity.org/resource/b7dx-7gc3.json?$select=ncname,count(*)&$where=requesttype='Illegal Dumping Pickup'&$group=ncname
- [5] City of Los Angeles Open Data, MyLA311 Service Request Data 2023. Accessed September 24, 2026.Query: https://data.lacity.org/resource/4a4x-mna2.json?$select=requesttype,count(*)&$group=requesttype
- [6] Crosstown (USC), A little help here: MyLA311 reports rise 5.2% in 2024 (Jon Regardie, Jan. 21, 2025). Accessed September 24, 2026.
- [7] CalRecycle, State of Disposal and Recycling in California, calendar year 2024. Accessed September 24, 2026.
- [8] Mattress Recycling Council, Bedding Industry's California Mattress Recycling Program Reaches New Milestones in Ninth Year (Aug. 4, 2025). Accessed September 24, 2026.
- [9] CalRecycle, Annual Update on California's Covered Electronic Waste Recycling Program. Accessed September 24, 2026.