At the end of the year, many Chinese families face the dilemma of dealing with furniture, mattresses, old documents, or yard materials during their big clean-up. Moving to a new house and unsure how to handle large furniture? Piles of documents waiting to be tossed but worried about personal information leaks? Not sure where to get sandbags when your home is flooded? Want to plant vegetables but can’t find free compost? In Chinese-dense cities like Temple City, Arcadia, and Alhambra in Los Angeles, these everyday life issues have long been addressed with free resources available from the city government.
In Los Angeles County, many city governments offer free services such as large trash removal, compost and wood chip collection, document shredding, and sandbag distribution. Additionally, cities provide services like reporting road potholes and streetlight malfunctions, removing animal carcasses, replacing trash cans, and offering transportation services for seniors. These services are extensive and convenient, but due to cultural and language barriers, most Chinese residents rarely take advantage of these “hidden benefits.”
During the year-end clean-up, many Chinese people struggle with the disposal of large trash. Some choose to pay cleaning companies to handle it, while others fear additional disposal fees or even illegally dumping furniture and facing fines, ending up with more losses than gains. In reality, residents of Temple City can request weekly curbside collection of large trash; in Rosemead, single-family households can have up to 25 pieces of large trash collected for free each year, with a limit of 5 items per collection; and Arcadia and Alhambra offer multiple pre-scheduled pickups throughout the year. These services cover items like mattresses, sofas, refrigerators, and stoves, and can be arranged for free through the city’s website or by phone.
Arcadia, Walnut, and Alhambra hold free “Shred Days” multiple times a year, where residents can shred documents like bills, medical records, tax forms, and bank documents on-site. Some cities combine shredding events with electronic waste recycling and compost distribution, attracting hundreds of residents to participate, completing document destruction, old appliance recycling, and gardening material collection in one go.
Resources for yard maintenance and planting are also abundant. Diamond Bar City operates a year-round self-serve compost and wood chip station where residents can collect materials in their own containers an unlimited number of times; Temple City, Arcadia, and Rosemead regularly host compost distribution events for residents to improve soil, cover weeds, and engage in gardening. Many families spend tens to hundreds of dollars annually on commercial compost without realizing the large quantity of quality free resources provided by the city government.
During the rainy season, fire departments in Arcadia, Alhambra, Monterey Park, and Diamond Bar offer sandbag distribution stations, where residents can receive sandbags for free by presenting proof of address, to prevent water pooling at doorsteps, garage flooding, or flooding in low-lying areas.
Cities in Los Angeles County provide services for reporting road potholes, cracks, and streetlight malfunctions, where residents can report issues through websites, apps, or dedicated hotlines for repairs by the public works department. Animal control departments handle roadside carcasses of wild cats, raccoons, and other animals, while damaged trash cans can be repaired or replaced for free.
These diverse and easily accessible free public resources are already included in the city budget and waste disposal fees, and can be considered as services that residents “already have the right to use.” However, due to scattered information and different ways of announcement among cities, coupled with the tendency in the Chinese community to handle things on their own or seek advice from relatives and friends, these highly practical resources have been underutilized for years. City governments urge residents to pay more attention to official announcements and website information, make good use of these free resources, and make year-end clean-ups and life maintenance more convenient.