Twice weekly trash pickup begins in Center City, South Philadelphia
The city of Philadelphia is launching a $12 million pilot program to make the streets cleaner.
Starting Monday, sanitation workers will pick up trash twice a week in Center City and South Philadelphia. The extra service will be available to residents of the area bounded by Callowhill Street to the north, Pattison Avenue to the south, the Delaware River to the east and the Schuylkill River to the west.
Officials celebrated the launch of the program during a news conference in Point Breeze on Monday.
"Cases like South Philadelphia, as you can see, it's a densely populated community with very limited storage capacity, so people, unfortunately, are forced to make the unpopular decision of having to throw the trash somewhere where it's not in front of their homes and restaurants," Carlton Williams, director of the city's Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said. "Well, that day is no more."
The program is Mayor Cherelle Parker's effort to create a cleaner, greener city. Many residents are hopeful the initiative will make a difference.
"I think that sounds like a good idea," Chris Bennett from South Philadelphia said. "I think it will result in less trash ending up on the streets. Less trash piling out of my trash cans at my apartment building. It will be cleaner. It will be better."
Some advocates, like Shari Hersh, question why the twice-weekly trash pickup doesn't include other parts of the city, such as North Philadelphia. Hersh is the co-director of Trash Academy, an organization calling for a Philadelphia free of litter and dumping by 2028.
"Have they targeted the most dumped-on neighborhoods? Have they targeted where it's most densely populated that don't have adequate trash management? That's my concern," Hersh said.
Williams said the city doesn't have enough trash trucks to cover all of North Philadelphia. Officials are in the process of getting dozens more trucks and hiring more workers to expand this service to the entire city by the fall of next year.
"I'm really glad they're trying something out because I know I would enjoy being out and about if there was less trash everywhere," James Fernando from South Philadelphia said.
The city is working to make the city cleaner in other ways. Officials are expanding the number of large trash receptacles known as Bigbellys from 1,500 to 2,500, Williams said.
The twice-weekly trash pickup program is aimed at addressing illegal dumping, a growing problem in Philadelphia. The city is adding 100 cameras to catch illegal dumpers in the act, Williams said.