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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Recycling by design
Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm - by Guest Commentator. Filed under: Community.
By Sandy Wiggins
I love our new Greenworks Philadelphia plan. Goal #7 calls for diverting 70% of our City’s solid waste from landfills by the year 2015. It’s an ambitious target considering our current 12% recycling rate, but one that is achievable as evidenced by other cities across the country like San Francisco, which is currently recycling 72% of its solid waste.
Philly recently took a step in the right direction with the deployment of BigBelly solar powered compactors throughout Center City.
By mid-summer, 500 of these WALL-E-esque mechanical wonders will dot our streetscapes from South to Spring Garden and the Schuylkill to the Delaware. They are projected to save Philadelphia $12 million over the next 10 years due to their increased storage capacity, which reduces by 80% the number of trash truck trips needed to empty them.
Mayor Nutter showing off a new "Eco-Station" / Photo by Bonnie Weller
Unfortunately, only 210 of the 500 proclaimed “Eco-stations” have recycling containers paired with the compactors. The other 290 might be more aptly called “Trash-stations” in spite of their solar powered machinery. This omission brings to mind a simple lesson that I have been sharing with the green building community for years - Design influences the way we behave.
Let me explain what I mean. Three years ago, I was changing flights in Chicago’s O’Hare airport when I noticed something new – recycling containers. Moving from terminal to terminal, I noted that every single trashcan had a recycling container adjacent to it. Being someone who would rather carry an empty plastic bottle in my brief case than toss it in the trash, I reacted to this discovery with exuberant relief.
Recycling bins are paired with trash cans at Chicago's O'Hare airport
Sitting at a gate waiting for my next flight, I watched with delight as people automatically and universally sorted their refuse into the proper container. This thoughtful act of design – to pair every trashcan with a recycling container – was influencing behavior on a grand scale. Everyone was recycling.
On a more recent trip through O’Hare, I realized that many of the recycling containers and trashcans had become separated from their mates and now stood independently of each other. Within the span of a few minutes, I observed a dozen weary travelers deposit their recyclables in the nearest convenient receptacle – a trashcan – oblivious to the recycling container 20 yards down the concourse.
There are real environmental benefits to Philadelphia’s BigBelly program. The huge reduction in trucking required to empty them will reduce the City’s carbon footprint. Their compactors run on integrated, clean, solar electricity. The fully enclosed bins will keep trash off of our streets and, more importantly, out of our storm drains through which thousands of tons wash into our rivers each year. But like the orphaned trashcans at O’Hare, BigBellys on our streets without companion recycling containers are destined to send tons of otherwise recyclable material to the landfill every day.
I love our new Greenworks Philadelphia plan. With thoughtful implementation, every one of its initiatives has the power to help make Philadelphia a truly great, truly green city. Let’s make sure we get it right by design.
Sandy Wiggins
Sandy Wiggins is chairman of e3bank, the first green, triple bottom line bank on the east coast. A leader in the green building movement who founded the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, Wiggins serves on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board and the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Totally agree. Design does make a huge difference in most cases; this is no different.
Regarding the BigBelly’s, I’m very excited about them (and blogged about them), but I am worried about the fact that one has to touch the trash cans to use them.
I thought of this right away when seeing the pull-down handle on the trash compactor. The recycling bins have open tops (albeit with restrictive shaped openings). I’m afraid that folks will end up tossing trash in the wrong bin, instead of having to pull down the handle and get their hands dirty.
I know I wouldn’t want to (and haven’t, yet) touch those handles without a bottle of purell nearby.
Couldn’t we add a foot-step opener to the design of these? Has BigBelly thought of this problem/tested it at all?
June 1st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
@Danya. Good point about the handles. Most people don’t like to open the lid on anyone’s trash can except their own. Maybe BigBelly2 will have a motion sensor that can open as you approach it.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
While on the surface, diverting 70% of our waste from landfills seems admirable, it merely opens the door to incineration. Just throw all of our trash in a fire, and boom, you’ve met the goal. In a way, the goal is almost more dangerous than our current “recycle a little and landfill the rest” procedure. The Philly recycling old timers will tell you that the city’s recycling program was born out of opposition to the proposed incinerator on the waterfront. Our goal should be to RECYCLE at least 70% of our waste by 2015. Then again, if SF is at 72% now, who knows where they’ll be in 6 years. 80%? 90%?Mr. Nutter, we’ve got a long way to go to be the greenest city in America.
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 am
Fantastic blog here - very well thought-out and well-written. Per your comments on recycling: teh city has 210 recycling bins where there were none before. If it proves successfull at those sites, I’m sure the city will add recycling modules to the rest of the machines out there. They are easily upgraded.
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:56 am
danya: spot on about the handle. That is a huge design FAIL.
Actually, the entire “let’s take trash compactor technology to the streets” seems rather dubious. I would rather see hybrid trash trucks than these silly beasts. I do love the recycling only cans! But why do we have to tie it the compactor roll out, though?
I noted that someone moved the tandem that were idiotically tucked into the stone entrance walls at Rittenhouse Park over to the street curb where they belong (bike messengers with design aesthetics, perhaps?)
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
I think the trash compacting cans are designed to reduce the number of garbage truck trips. So, the city argues, that that’s where the environmental benefit is.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:04 am
The focus is always on household waste, what about commercial waste?
One busy bar throws away more glass on a busy Friday night than I recycle all year.
Yay! for the new compactors! We need them on lower South Street NOW!