You can help Philadelphia clean up its act

By Donald Carlton

Many of the 900 public litter baskets placed on Philadelphia streets are overflowing, pouring trash into our neighborhoods. These litter baskets are intended to help solve our litter problem by providing residents and visitors with a convenient way to dispose of their litter. The solution has become the problem.

Instead of using these containers properly, residents are disposing their household waste and bulk items in them. This is not only unsightly and avoidable, but illegal.

Large families, multifamily homes, and small businesses quickly accumulate waste. This can lead to residents looking for alternatives to their weekly curbside pickup. But moving waste that is piling up inside your home or small business to the public litter baskets on your street corner doesn't solve the problem. It creates a new one.

Here is how the system is supposed to work. Residents are responsible for collecting their household waste and placing it curbside once a week - they can dispose of up to eight 32-gallon trash bags and most bulk items weekly. Once that refuse is on the curb, it's the city's responsibility to pick up.

Officers of the Streets and Walkways Education and Enforcement Program are currently canvasing neighborhoods and business corridors to educate the public about responsible ways to dispose of household waste. In addition, when officers find a public litter basket overloaded, they will investigate the illegal dumping and, when possible, issue a $150 citation to the offender.

Fortunately, a citation is not the only alternative when the household trash is piling up.

Collectable rubbish, recyclables, e-waste, and bulk items can also be disposed of at any of the three Sanitation Convenience Centers located in the Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast sections of the city. These centers are open Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and are available for all city residents.

In addition, there are also multiple Household Hazardous Waste Events held at these centers and the Streets Department sponsors more than 6,000 neighborhood cleanup events across the city throughout the year.

With all these options, there is simply no excuse for careless littering. We must all work together to use public baskets for keeping litter off our streets, not for household waste.

That citywide community effort starts at home: Save your weekly trash for curbside pickup, and please call 3-1-1 if you see anyone misusing the public litter baskets and contributing to our litter problem.

To learn more, visit www.philadelphiastreets.com.