I have been unable to convince the streets dept to pickup recycling at our apt (61XX wayne ave). Called them multiple times, usually i get dumped into their answering service after 10minutes of being on hold. The streets dept trash/recyling 'hotline' is a disgrace.

I dont' get the point of spending our tax money to promote recycling,
fines, incentives, etc if there is no way to improve the services offered.

Does anyone have a local streets dept contact? Apparently our landlord
had to jump through hoops just to have the normal trash collected.
We're situated between a couple of huge apartment complexes so i guess
our block gets skipped regularly..

On a somewhat related note, I recently learned that the city of Philadelphia doesn't recycle plastic (I put them out there...I guess they were just thrown in the trash). However, there are [at least] two places that recycle stuff the city doesn't take. Anyone know of any other places?

Chestnut Hill:
Where: Wyndmoor Train Station, Willow Grove Ave. near Crittenden St.
Day: 1st Saturday of the month
Time: 9 am to 1 pm
Materials collected: mixed paper, #1 & #2 plastic, household batteries, aluminum cans

Mt. Airy:
Where: Unitarian Church parking lot, off Johnson St.
Day: 3rd Saturday of the month
Time: 9 am to 1 pm
Materials collected: mixed paper, #1 & #2 plastic

To nitpick slightly - the city doesn't do curbside pickup of plastic. The drop-off locations are city programs that use city trucks.

The full list of Partnership Recycling Program locations and days is at:
http://www.phila.gov/streets/recyling_partnership.html

Wyndmoor Station and the UU church are the only ones in NW Philly, though.

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Thomas Taylor

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Contact Pedro Ramos, the Managing Director (the Streets Department reports to him) at managing.director@phila.gov. Also, contact City Council at http://www.phila.gov/citycouncil.

__________________

You can now request any and all Streets Department services online:
http://www.phila.gov/streets/request_service.html

Thanks for the clarification. :-)

Thank you for the information, thats what i just did.

Apparently, none of the city high rise buildings, apartment or corporate, are subject to the same recylcing regulations that city household residents are, so that might be why you are having problems getting them to help you.

Well, no wonder we have no effective recycling system in this city - the people who count, who generate the biggest amount of waste, dont have to recycle. If you think about how more than half of the high-rise residents and businesses do not have to recycle their waste (they just throw their trash into dumpsters and have private removal) then it is not as surprising that Philly has an absolutely terrible system for supporting recyling.

Can you imagine all the water bottles, soda cans and paper that one Liberty Place business must generate in one week? And it all goes straight to landfill. Its really an absurd waste.

We're in a small (3 apt) buildling that should be legally served.

The problem is that we're situated on a block that is pretty much nothing but big buildings. The crews skip our block entirely for this reason. .

Cheers,


_M

Not true. Multi-tenant residential buildings and commercial buildings are required by law to develop and file a "recycling plan", which includes contracting for paper, metal and (for residential) glass. However, enforcement is minimally funded and staffed, for both those served by city curbside service and those with private removal.

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Thomas Taylor

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I stand corrected.

But if there is a "regulation" and a plan then why dont most of the downtown buildings in town recycle? because of this poor staffing with the city? That's horrible. And what about the ones who privately dispose of their waste?

I know residents / tenants who have inquired in their building, wanting to recycle, and the buildings' management (or the waste company I dont know) do not support them because of the private pick-up arrangements.

Help me understand this. Its all just a shame.