By Susan Jarvis
October 8, 2007

Philadelphia prides itself on being a city of neighborhoods, which presents very specific challenges and opportunities for the collection and removal of solid waste. Philadelphia Managing Director Loree Jones welcomed MWMA members to the city and touted the city’s special commitment to cleaning and maintaining its’ neighborhoods. The core mission of Commissioner Clarena Tolson’s Streets and Sanitation department is “clean streets are safe streets” with many different programs playing a role in implementing this mission statement.

Carlton Williams, Philadelphia’s Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation, briefed attendees on the city’s innovative Streets and Walkways Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEPs) program. SWEEPs employs 36 officers who are responsible for working with neighborhoods and residents to address sanitation problems, including trash set out times, trash limit regulations, litter laws, recycling violations, dumpster laws and illegal dumping violations. SWEEPs officers issue between 80-90,000 code notice violations (CNVs), resulting in $1.2 million in fines. Each CNV is written to identify both the violation and the violator. Once the CVN is written, it is forwarded to the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication for processing. Violators can either pay the fine, or request a hearing to dispute the charge. Currently, CNV’s are written and filed by hand, and the city is exploring automating the system with Personal Digital Assistants and cameras.

Like many cities, illegal dumping continues to be a problem. In 2006, 37,000 tons of illegally dumped materials were collected that cost tax payers $2.2 million in clean up and disposal costs. The city is also challenged by illegal dumping of tires, neglected properties, recycling violations and high and overgrown weeds. Williams said the city uses “enforcement as a tool to implement waste management, including reduce, reuse, recycle, to ensure a clean and safe environment.”

Philadelphia Recycling Director Scott McGrath briefed attendees on the transition to single stream recycling. The city has created a pilot education program directed at Northeast Philadelphia. The education program consists of direct mail, print ads, automated calls, community meetings and street teams who go door to door to explain the new process. The single'stream recycling program has increased tonnage, increased crew production and increased recycling rates.

Keep Philadelphia Beautiful (KPB) Executive Director Phoebe Coles reported on innovative program called “The Litter Index.” Implemented by KPB, the litter index is a scoring tool used to visually rate an area by providing a measurement of the litter in a given area. In order to tailor the program to Philadelphia, KPB created manageable sections of the city and modified the judging scale. The judging scale is both numerical (ratings of 1-4, 1 being best) and color coded (green meaning no litter, to red: extremely littered). KPB worked with the city’s block captains to score each area. Red and orange areas were tagged as needing immediate attention. The city coordinated “Operation Clean Streets” to provide front-end loaders, back pack blowers and street sweepers. Three “Love Where You Live” rallies were held in red areas to honor block captains and bring resources to the areas.

Philadelphia’s innovative community clean up and anti-litter programs leverage the city’s unique sense of neighborhood pride to create “clean and safe streets.”