Philadelphia expands twice-a-week trash collection

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Philadelphia officials are celebrating the expansion of the city’s twice-weekly trash collection.

Initially, only South Philadelphia and Center City were beneficiaries of the twice-weekly pickups, but the effort has officially expanded to include neighborhoods such as Fishtown, and parts of Kensington, among others.

Mayor Cherelle Parker said Monday the area spans Vine Street to Hunting Park Avenue, from Broad Street between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, and Vine Street to Glenwood Avenue.

The goal is to reduce short-dumping, or when people dispose of trash in makeshift dump sites scattered across the city, which the sanitation department has to clean up at a cost to taxpayers. Officials estimate that some 600,000 tons of waste are collected from illegal dumps, costing the city over $1.5 million annually.

Parker said increasing pickup days is more convenient for residents.

“Because it provides a convenient solution for residents when there is no area in their homes to store that excess trash,” she said. “[Not all] of Philadelphia has the ability to take their trash to one of our sanitation convenience centers. That is not the case for all Philadelphians.”

The mayor said she wants to end the “Filthadelphia” moniker that people have pinned on the city in the past. The plan is part of her strategy for a cleaner and greener city.

Collection day schedule

The second trash collection will occur three days after the first. For example, if your usual trash collection is Monday, you’ll get a second collection on Thursday.

The city will not collect recycling on the second pickup of the week, and twice-weekly pickup will not occur during holiday weeks.

“If it’s trash collection on a Wednesday, you’ll have an additional collection on a Saturday — first time we’ve ever done that. If your trash collection is on Thursday, it reverts back to your second day on the [following] Monday,” said Carlton Williams, director of Parker’s Clean and Green office.

Williams said collections are already underway in the neighborhoods, which pleases Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who said an increase in multifamily dwellings has resulted in more short-dumpings.

“This issue is visible on our street corners, vacant lots, commercial corridors and other residential neighborhoods,” Williams said. “With the increase of multifamily dwellings over the past few years, and limited waste storage options in our district, residents have had to deal with overflowing trash and inadequate disposal solutions. Today marks a turning point.”

The city has had to make a major investment in equipment and employees to make the twice-weekly collections a reality. It’s taken two years to put together the 20 crews, made up of 60 new workers and 60 new trash compactors. Williams said the expansion has cost the city $38 million.

Parker said buying trash compactors is a time-consuming and competitive process, sometimes requiring officials to outbid other municipalities also looking for the trucks.

Councilmember Mark Squilla said most of his district is now covered with the additional collection days, but that it came with an adjustment period. The problems include people not completely understanding the rules, especially that they can’t put trash out every day of the week, only on their designated days. The other issue is people forgetting that there isn’t a second collection on a holiday week.