Trash day will come twice a week for Center City and South Philly starting in December

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The city of Philadelphia will start twice-weekly curbside trash pickup in Center City and South Philly beginning early next month.

The pilot program is the latest element of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s push to make Philly the “cleanest, greenest big city in the nation.”

“We hope that this culture of dumping around our corners, our Bigbellies and anywhere in between will change,” said Carlton Williams, director of the city’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, during a virtual presentation for residents Thursday. “Then we can reduce the amount of trash that you’re seeing currently in our neighborhoods and our communities.”

Twice-a-week trash pickup was among the city services that anti-litter and illegal dumping advocates called for, unsuccessfully, toward the end of the Kenney administration. Parker requested $11 million for a twice-a-week pickup pilot in her budget proposal this past spring.

The twice-a-week pickup program, announced to residents of Center City and South Philly through a series of virtual presentations this month, starts Dec. 2. It’ll cover the sanitation districts between Callowhill Street and Pattison Avenue, from the Schuylkill River to the Delaware River.

The second collection day will occur halfway through the area’s normal weekly pickup cycle — for example, areas that currently have their trash day on Mondays will add a second collection day on Thursdays, while areas with Wednesday trash pickups will get a second pickup on Saturdays.

“By the time I generate one or two bags of trash, here comes the collection crew. By the time I generate the second two bags of trash, I’m back around to another collection day,” Williams said. “There should be absolutely no excuse for people to [illegally dump].”

The second trash collection day will not include a recycling pickup, and residents can face fines for mixing trash and recycling on the second day.

Litter index data in recent years have shown that litter is worst in North, West and Southwest Philly. But Center City and South Philly were chosen for the twice-a-week pilot due to resource availability, as South Philly requires fewer compactors to service than other areas of the city, said Office of Clean and Green Initiatives spokesperson Keisha McCarty.

The city plans to expand the twice-a-week trash collection to areas of the city “with equal or greater needs” next fall, once the city gets more trash compactors, McCarty said. Officials have not specified where these areas will be.

The city is also repeating its 13-week cleanup of every block in the city, first launched this summer, this month through January.

An appointment-based curbside bulk pickup program for large household items like furniture and appliances kicked off earlier this fall. Within weeks hundreds of people signed up. Up to two bulk items per household can also be included in the regular weekly curbside trash pickup, according to the Department of Sanitation.