Trash Me

Over the weekend I received a response from to last week's email by reader Ben, by Deputy Streets Department Commissioner Carlton Williams. Deputy Commissioner Williams has fielded Ben's questions and provided information that will, hopefully, ease concerns about recycling efforts. For additional information, visit the Streets Department homepage.

From Deputy Commissioner Williams:

"With special attention and great interest, I read Ben’s “An Opinionated Email”. The Streets Department has worked hard to give our citizens a first class recycling program for all residents in the City of Philadelphia.

In 2004 the Streets Department piloted two innovative new recycling processes that included single stream recycling and incentive based recycling which is more commonly known as RecycleBank. The pilot programs were tested in the Northwest section of the city in the West Oak Lane and Chestnut Hill communities.

The Streets Department conducted several extensive evaluations of both programs and found single stream recycling to be more cost effective for a citywide program to increasing recycling than the incentive based model. The mechanical lifting equipment used with the incentive based model increased the Streets Department's collection times significantly. A citywide expansion of the incentive based recycling program would increase operating costs more than $3 million annually excluding the fees paid to Recyclebank. Single stream recycling increased recycling tonnage and participation without increasing collection costs and has no fees.

Now that the pilot has concluded the city is pleased to offer a citywide single stream recycling program. The single stream recycling program entitled "All Together Now" has increased recycling tonnage by more than 35% saving tax payers millions of dollars in disposal fees and earning more revenue for the material collected.

Today, Philadelphia is the largest city on the east coast to offer single stream recycling. The City is already benefiting from this new collection process. Last year the Department collected more than 50,000 tons of recyclable materials. This is the highest quantity collected in the history of the City’s recycling program. Subsequently the City earned over $1.9 million in marketing income from the materials which is also a new high point.

Mayor Nutter made recycling a high priority in his administration and this year invested more than $6 million dollars to expand to a weekly single stream recycling program by January 2009. This will further increase recycling tonnage improving the city’s diversion rate.

We appreciate Ben’s enthusiasm and concern for improved recycling in Philadelphia. We share the same goal and will continue to work with the residents of Philadelphia to offer a quality recycling service in the community."