New Recycling Measures Hit Roxborough-Manayunk Streets

Recycling in the city is now as easy as 1, 2, 3... to 7.

A month after an announcement that expanded recycling citywide to include more plastics, Roxborough and Manayunk have seen the results on the streets.

As announced Aug. 2, Philadelphia now accepts plastics numbered 3 through 7 in weekly household collections. Previously the city only accepted plastics 1 and 2. The change allow for residents to easily recycle:

• Rigid plastic containers and juice bottles
• Squeezable lotion and sunscreen tubes
• Plastic tubs and lids from butter/margarine, yogurt containers, deli trays
• Plastic cups, plates and clear to-go containers
• Mixed plastic containers usually labeled as "other."

Streets Department spokesperson Keisha McCarty-Skelton described the city's two-fold motivation.

"Accepting these materials maximize recycling in order to save the city money on trash bills ($68/ton) and to earn the city revenues on our recyclables ($51.37/ton)," she said via e-mail.

"Also, we want recycling to be as easy and convenient as possible. Not having to think too much about what kind of plastic you're recycling makes mixed plastic that much easier."

McCarty-Skelton also said by collecting 3 to 7 plastics, level 1 and 2 plastics were collected in high quantity—saving the city money. That fact was affirmed by the Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association. President Drew Bantley said the city's trash bill has dipped to $25 per ton in one month following the expansion.

Environmentally, the city imposed the measure to up its recycling numbers. Last year, 99,000 tons of recyclables were collected, a diversion rate of 16 percent away from landfills. In Mayor Michael Nutter's GreenWorks sustainability plan, the mayor pledged a 20 percent diversion rate by 2011 and 25 percent by 2015. 

For integration on a citywide scale, alerting the public can often prove difficult. Aside from public appearances by Nutter stumping for recycling, information went out in people's water bills over the summer.

Additionally, the media campaign will step it up in coming weeks through advertisements, radio campaigns, outdoor signs, and a 10-second public service announcement on FOX 29, McCarty-Skelton said.

Internally, the switchover was pretty painless. McCarty-Skelton said, since there was "no price impact and there was not impact on the vendor's ability to accept the material, the city moved to add these commodities to its curbside recycling program."

For more information on the new recycling program, visit the city's recycling website or call 215-685-7329.