‘This has to stop’: Philadelphians push City Council for more illegal dumping prevention

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Illegal dumping remains a big issue in the city of Philadelphia, residents testified during a City Council hearing Monday. They want City Council to fund efforts that will finally end it.

Joyce Brooks, president of the Block Captain Committee of Nicetown, said her North Philly neighborhood has experienced dumping for decades.

“This issue has resulted in hazardous environmental conditions and blight,” she said. “This has to stop.”

The goal of the Committee on Streets and Services hearing was to evaluate the effectiveness of the city’s current enforcement of anti-dumping laws, said Councilmember Anthony Phillips (District 9), who sponsored the legislation authorizing the hearing.

“Are we holding illegal dumpers accountable?” Phillips said. “What improvements can be made to prevent these efforts of illegal dumping?”

People are frustrated

Brooks, who has lived in Nicetown for 57 years, said trash and debris pile up around dumpsters and empty lots in her neighborhood.

“We have rodents, mice, all kinds of stuff because of this illegal dumping,” Brooks said. “I’ll be 80 years old next year. I want to come out my door and not be afraid that an opossum will jump on me.”

In Eastwick, the issue has prompted residents to resurrect a town watch group that was active in the 1990s, said Ramona Rousseau-Reid, a block captain and vice president of the Eastwick Friends and Neighbors Coalition.

“There are isolated blocks with little or no street lighting, and that’s where people sneak in at night — and sometimes brazenly in the broad daylight — to dump,” she said. “I’ve lost count of the times we’ve organized neighborhood cleanups filling over 100 trash bags, only to see everything trashed again a week later. It’s frustrating to say the least.”

Aminata Sandra Calhoun, director of sanitation and environmental programs at Centennial Parkside Community Development Corp. in West Philly, said city agencies have failed to address the piles of trash and debris she sees in her neighborhood daily.

“I have taken this to every system in the Philadelphia system — L&I and everybody,” she said. “I cannot continue to live like this.”

Dumping hurts quality of life, particularly in working-class neighborhoods of color

Dallas Herbert, a 25-year resident of the Lawncrest neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, has been fighting to keep a section of Newtown Avenue along Tacony Creek Park clean of illegally dumped debris for years. The member of 215 People’s Alliance said after joining Trash Academy, he realized dumping was a problem not just in Lawncrest, but throughout the city as a whole.

“Well, almost whole,” he said. “We know in some neighborhoods dumping does not happen or wouldn’t be tolerated. It’s mostly in the poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color.”

Barbara Bloomfield, a resident of majority-white Chestnut Hill — one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods — agreed.

“I have nothing to say about illegal dumping in my neighborhood because it never happens,” she told City Council members during Monday’s hearing. “If there is no illegal dumping in Chestnut Hill, why should there be any in any other part of the city?”

Residents and advocates want more funding for prevention

Several people who testified during Monday’s hearing praised the Parker administration’s efforts to ramp up cleaning throughout the city. Last summer, Parker launched a 13-week cleanup of every city block — which her administration says will now happen twice a year. A few months later, the city restarted curbside pickup of bulky items, by appointment.

But residents said cleanup alone is a losing game if it’s not paired with effective efforts to prevent dumping from happening in the first place.

“I commend the mayor for her Clean and Green program, but cleaning is not enough,” said Lois Williams, one of the leaders of Trash Academy. “We need to judge progress not by how many blocks were cleaned, but how long they stay clean.”

Williams, who lives in the Fairhill neighborhood of North Philly, said a nearby dump site prevents her son, who uses a power wheelchair, from going to the store on his own — because he’d need to travel in the street to get around the debris.

“What we need to see is prevention, enforcement and exposure of these people,” Williams said. “They keep dumping on our sites. I mean, shame them.”

Residents said the city should publicize the names of illegal dumpers and prevent contractors with a history of dumping from doing any business in the city. They suggested the city make it easier for businesses to “activate” vacant lots with pop-up events, do more to enforce anti-dumping laws and educate residents about proper trash disposal with pamphlets delivered to homes. They also renewed calls for the city to open its sanitation convenience centers to small commercial trash haulers, for a fee that’s lower than the rates they’d face at private commercial dumps.

“We just want to see action,” said Leonard Rhett, a block captain in the Olney neighborhood.

The advocates calling for a bigger focus on enforcement and prevention found a sympathetic ear in Councilmember Phillips, who said the city’s current emphasis on cleaning may not be sustainable.

“We’re investing so much money into cleaning, which everyone has actually seen in the city of Philadelphia is actually working,” he said. “But now it’s like, how many more times can we do that?”

Carlton Williams, director of Philadelphia’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said during Monday’s hearing that the city is working to ramp up enforcement of anti-dumping laws. He said legislation passed by City Council in recent years has allowed the city to fine dumpers up to $5,000 per item per incident — bringing in over $200,000 in illegal dumping settlements last year.

The city currently has around 300 surveillance cameras dedicated to catching illegal dumpers. It plans to install 100 more this year, Williams said.