Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration launched its twice-a-week trash collection initiative Monday for residents of Center City and South Philadelphia.
The first phase of the program is for those living in an area bounded by Callowhill Street, Pattison Avenue, the Schuylkill Expressway and Delaware Avenue.
Beginning this week, anyone in that zone with a normal Monday pickup will also be able to set out their trash for sanitation trucks on Thursday. A Tuesday collection will correspond with a second trash day on Friday. Trucks will come on Saturday for those with Wednesday pickups. Second collections for Thursday and Friday will occur Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
Recycling will not be gathered on the second collection, so residents are asked to hold recyclables for their existing trash day, city officials said. Second trash pickups also will not happen on weeks with holidays.
For the second pickup, those living in Center City and South Philadelphia can put out no more than two bulky items, eight bags and four cans, according to the Parker administration.
Parker’s team hopes to expand the program next fall, with plans to cover North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Germantown and Frankford, said Carlton Williams, the director of the city’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
Williams said South Philadelphia and Center City were selected as the initial neighborhoods included in the twice-a-week pilot program because of their relatively small geographical area. More sanitation vehicles are needed for more pickups in other swaths of the city, and officials said compactor trucks, once ordered, take 18 to 24 months to arrive.
In addition, the initial phase covers a densely populated zone where residents may not have a lot of room to store waste, members of Parker’s administration said during a news conference Monday in Point Breeze.
City officials hope the initiative discourages neighbors from dumping trash on vacant lots, street corners, near public trash cans and elsewhere.
“When you walk around our streets in our neighborhoods, you see bags of trash piled up on vacant lots, along BigBellys all up along Broad Street,” Williams said. “These things impact the quality of life in our community and our neighborhood.”
Parker’s successful mayoral run last year was built, at least in part, on promises to improve cleanliness in Philadelphia.
“Two-day-a-week trash pickup is something that people want to see in this city,” state Rep. Jordan Harris, of South Philadelphia, said Monday.
Brochures with pickup schedules are being sent out to homes in the twice-a-week zone, according to Williams. More information is also available at phila.gov/sanitation.
