By Kathryn Reed

Recycling has taken on new meaning when it comes to garbage.

Clean Tahoe, the South Shore program on the California side that goes beyond what the regular garbage company does by hauling away debris dumped in meadows and emptying trash bins in public areas, is now in the furniture recycling business.

Ellen Nunes, director of the program, started Project Dinner Table last year. Her crews take furniture that has been illegally discarded that is still usable and gives it to the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center for their clients. The effort is supported by a grant from Soroptimist International.

Picking up abandoned couches is part of what Clean Tahoe crews do. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Nunes made her annual presentation to the South Lake Tahoe City Council at its last meeting.

“This upcoming year I would like the City Council to place more emphasis on code enforcement,” Nunes said. “Eighty percent of the cans in South Lake Tahoe don’t have lids.”

This has helped lead to one-third of the calls placed to Clean Tahoe being a result of animals in garbage.

What Nunes would like to see is for language in the code to be altered so the “mays” and “coulds” are eliminated. This, she says, would put some teeth into the laws.

She told the council she is not aware of any fines or mandates for bear-proof containers for people caught violating the law.