How to report an overflowing dumpster on a weekend

If you call 311 on Sunday and an inspector shows up on Wednesday, the garbage is long gone and the report gets closed as "no violation." So the evidence has to come from you, with a date and time on it.

1. Go out on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Find an overflowing dumpster.
2. Take pictures with your phone's camera app, not screenshots, so each photo keeps its time and location. Get one wide shot that shows the building and the container, then a close-up of the rat buffet.
3. Report it in the CHI311 app or at 311.chicago.gov and attach the photos. Use the address of the building the container belongs to. There are two complaint types:
   • Sanitation Code Violation, for overflow, garbage outside the container, or lids that don't close.
   • Rodent Baiting / Rat Complaint, if you see rats or burrows.
4. If it happens again next weekend, report it again. The same address, on the same day of the week, week after week, is hard to wave off.

You can help!

If a big groundswell of Chicagoans starts to show the Department of Streets and Sanitation that this is a real and current problem, our campaign will get more attention with the coming round of mayoral candidates.

Why bother

Only 2% of sanitation complaints filed on a Sunday are closed that same day. For rat complaints it's one out of 8,836. By the time someone gets around to it, a dated photo is often the only proof the overflow was ever there. Where those numbers come from.