Excess bulky-item buildup along crowded city streets could be another grim reminder of the current junky economy.

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average spirals downward, the amount of bulky trash items along some Honolulu curbsides reaches new heights.

Markus Owens, director of the city's Department of Environmental Services, said the problem appears to be related to the recession. Owens said in recent months there has been a bulky- item buildup in areas that have a high concentration of apartments.

"There's been a lot of turnover in the apartment complexes and condos that people were renting in those areas," said Owens. "They were looking for cheaper rent, and moving out, and dumping all their stuff in one area."

One of the areas hardest hit has been the 500 block of University Avenue, said Owens.

Pierre Jaffuel, who lives in the Ala Wai Plaza on University, said he isn't sure what the cause is. He only knows the rubbish lining the curb outside his building has grown immense of late.

"There was nothing there when the city picked up the bulk items after the third Monday of the month," said Jaffuel. "And then the next day, someone started putting something in there. And then it just kept on piling up."

Seventeen days later, the pile-up had blossomed to some 40 feet in length and included a stove, a broken bathtub, a toilet tank, several televisions, discarded office equipment, scrap metal, broken glass, boxes, boards and bedsprings.

"It comes from people passing by," said Jaffuel, as he gazed at the trash pile Thursday morning. "They see this garbage, they go home, pick up their old refrigerator, bring it over and dump it. It's right in front of the building and in front of the Ala Wai Elementary School, with all the kids passing the garbage and tramping through the glass."

A posted sign prohibits dumping. People do it anyway, said Jaffuel.

The sign reads: "Bulky item pickup is on the 3rd Monday of each month and at no other time." Directly below that sign is another one with larger lettering that reads, "No Dumping — $500 fine."

Owens said $500 fines can be levied. But they are difficult to prosecute because a police officer or a resident has to actually see the offender flinging his junk.

"People don't pay any attention to what day of the week the pickup takes place," said Brent Bergmann, building manager at the Ala Wai Plaza, which has 1,200 residents.

"They just dump at will. So, one hubcap begets a dresser, which begets a wash machine, which begets refrigerator. And the pile grows, and it covers the fire hydrants, and the schoolchildren climb over, under, around and through it."

Bergmann said sometimes the trash heap will expand until "it's the size of a city bus." Then, after it's carted off around the third Monday of the month, the early bulky-item buildup starts all over again. Bergmann says when the pile is small, he removes it himself.

"But once a midnight dumper comes past here at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and unloads a truck full of junk, we don't have space to store that."

Storage is part of the problem, said Owens.

"These multiple unit places are supposed to provide a storage area for their residents until the night before the bulky-item pickup," he said. "They're supposed to have room for the items on property."

City spokesman Bill Brennan said people are supposed to behave responsibly and pitch their box springs and bookcases to the curb the night before the pickup. But in hard times, the culprits apparently throw out the rules — along with the kitchen sink — right before they split.

"What we have found is that this problem is especially true in places where there are apartment buildings," Brennan said. "The end of the month has just come. Somebody's got to be out of their place. So, they take everything down, dump it and leave. They don't care if it ever gets picked up. They don't even live there anymore. They're gone."

If the bulky-item buildup becomes a hazard, the city can dispatch a crew to haul off the stuff earlier than the appointed pickup day, said Owens. That's the conclusion the city reached Thursday about the University Avenue curbside heap.

By early afternoon, the whole mess had been removed and, once more, that end of the street had been swept clean.

How long it would remain so would be anybody's guess.