In honor of Global Recycling Day on March 18th and Earth Day coming up on April 22nd, we thought it would be a good idea to go over the do’s and don'ts of Trash and Recycling! It’s important for us to keep the Tacony we love thriving, clean, and beautiful! So let’s talk about recycling practices, times and places your household trash should be put out, and the Bulk Pickup Program offered by the Department of Sanitation at no cost to you!
Not sure what is recycling and what is not? Check out the graphic below to help guide your sustainable trash practices! Having trouble remembering which plastics are safe to recycle in Philadelphia? Just remember to put the #2, #1, and #5 in the 215, and always rinse everything! Dirty recycling does not get recycled.
For trash collection, it is important to remember that during Fall and Winter you should set out your trash and recycling between 5 p.m. the night before collection day and 7 a.m. on collection day, during Spring and Summer those times change to between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. In Tacony, that means Thursday nights and Friday mornings! These rules help to ensure trash is not being left on sidewalks for longer than necessary. This can help with blown over trash around the neighborhood as well. It’s not just rude, but leaving your trash out at the wrong time can get you a fine!
Thanks to the Taking Care of Business Program, our Torresdale Avenue Corridor gets cleaned three times a week by the Men in Blue of Ready, Willing & Able, who work hard to keep the Avenue looking fresh! They also clean side streets like Longshore and Disston Ave! The main purpose of RWA is to help our businesses keep their storefronts and sidewalks clean, but this does not include household and personal items. Those items must be put out for the households' weekly regular trash pickup to maintain a clean neighborhood. It’s not fair to the RWA team to ask them to pick up our litter and take care of household trash too! Save it for collection day, which is Friday morning in Tacony.
The Philadelphia Department of Sanitation offers a residential bulk collection service for items like refrigerators, air conditioners, and tires that are not picked up during regular weekly trash collection. This service is only available by making an appointment with the Department of Sanitation. There is also a limit of 4 bulk items per appointment and one appointment per household, per week. Though it may take some time for your appointment to be scheduled, it’s much better than leaving bulky items where they can block car and pedestrian traffic!
This collection service is open to residential households in Philadelphia, including single-family homes and multi-family dwellings with up to five units. Those not eligible for this service are: larger apartment buildings, condominiums, and commercial properties. There are other options for bulky items, though! Plenty of private companies will remove these things, or our local sanitation center is located at 8401 State Road and is available for you to drop off oversized trash, yard waste, recycling, and other items. They are open Monday-Saturday 8 AM to 6 PM.
Some items the Sanitation department will collect through this service are major appliances (e.g., refrigerators, air conditioners, hot water heaters), household furniture, large toys, flat-screen TVs, and passenger car tires. Items that are not eligible for collection include: household trash and mattresses (wrapped in plastic), hazardous, flammable, or explosive materials, auto parts, and construction or demolition materials.
You can schedule your bulk pick up here! You can find all information on how to schedule your appointment and put out your items at the above link as well.
We hope to see our neighbors implementing these practices and keep working hard to maintain our beautiful Tacony!
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