Twitter account brings awareness to South Philly trash problem
Trash is scattered around the streets, sidewalks and vacant lots of our city. Things like the spring cleanup, new trash cleaning programs and the potential for city-wide street cleaning are helpful, but they’re still not solving this deeply-rooted trash problem.
@SouthPhilaTrash @BeautifulPHL On S.Broad St. #philthadelphians #southphilthadelphia #keepphiladelphiabeautiful pic.twitter.com/G2qv2KT5MI
— Prep & Foxx Assoc. (@PrepandFoxx) March 23, 2016
One Point Breeze resident is now bringing awareness to this issue with a Twitter page dedicated to sharing photos of the trash in South Philly. Moderator of the page, Jen Devor, wants to show the litter throughout this part of the city, but she also hopes to, “draw attention to solutions for litter prevention and abatement.”
Why do we litter? Why do we live in filth? pic.twitter.com/VTQipIBubY
— South Phila Trash (@SouthPhilaTrash) April 5, 2016
The page, @SouthPhilaTrash is meant to service as a “place to vent and a virtual reminder.” Devor is looking for other members of the South Philly community to begin tweeting their photos to her to document this widespread issue.
When i lived in NYC, you were fined for putting out either loose trash or unbagged trash. The city needs to do a better job fining people, since money is a strong disincentive to litter. I know this is heresy in South Philly, but if you gave the PPA the authority to fine people for loose trash – my bet is you would see a severe reduction in litter. Weed out the handful of bad actors, and make them pay.
Curbed trash is often poorly contained. The paper grocery bag is my (least) favorite. Who thinks that is durable? Open-top bins are spilling out. We should get bins with lids and/or tightly close the bags so our recycling doesn’t spill out and blow around.
The city does fine for trash-related issues – my parents got fined for (mistakenly) putting a glass bottle in a trash bag instead of the recycle bin. But they live in a neighborhood where it’s very obvious which trash belongs to which property…in most of South Philly it’s difficult to tell, plus people like to dump trash in other peoples’ bins. You’d have to actually catch someone in the act.
This is pretty cool. The beer bottles, beer case boxes, and other trash, such as falling fire escape pieces, along side the beer distributor on Iseminger Street off of Snyder should trend well on that account. But the people reporting trash will be uber selective about who they are hawkish towards and who they look they other way for, I’m sure… Here’s hoping I’m wrong…
It is difficult to be sure about who is to blame when some high school kids who are just bored and rambunctious from being cooped up in school all day, comes by rough housing and knocks over your cans or causes your bags to rip open. My recycling can is missing its lid every couple of months it seems. Lots of time I find other trash on top of the trash I put out just an hour before hand.. Its not very simple as to say “ahh just lay fines on these people!”
Why is trash out when high school kids are coming home? It’s not supposed to be put out until 7pm the night before pick up, right?
Checkmate.
Cute…. But it is still left out often when they don’t pick it up. Checkmate, stalemate, get a life mate…
ALSO
They walk to AND from schools ya know… Sooooooo……
Keep trollin fellas.
In case it needs to be spelled out for ya… To and from school.. Walking to school… Usually happens in the morning… When the trash is out waiting to get picked up… And bums who go through trash tend not to put it all back like they found it ya know…
I hate how making a few points about how trash/recycling some times gets messed up, turns into the person making the point being in the wrong. Makes people feel like they shouldn’t have taken the time to even care about the issue in the first place. Good job!
Where the hell are the trash cans….
In general but also specifically the ones at 10th/Reed/Passyunk
Garbage/trash cans then are used for household trash leaving yet another mess.
Would really help if the Trash men who collect the trash would not do such a half ass job and drop and throw bags of trash around causing them to break spill filling the trash back on street.
I have to weekly take a hose to my side walk and street because when the trash truck comes down my street dropping and spilling stinky shit all over. Half Ass Workers paid by the city. If the streets department drove down any street after a so called trash day they might see what the tax payers get. 12th st @ Cantrell
Very good points don’t seem welcome here Ken… Watch yourself. Ya might get “checkmated”… lol
Can we get a PhillyDogShitSidewalk-DogShitOwner one as well? Thanks.
There is nothing worse that dog owners allowing there dogs to sh!it all over sidewalks when there are mutiple parks in the neighborhood. Even worse they don’t even pick the sh!t up after. Most of the dog owners in south philly are scum.
When I lived in Graduate Hospital, dog owners frequently left their doggy bags in our recycling bin between pickup and us getting home from work. Classy!
It would help if the trash men did their part too and actually bent over to pick up trash that fell on the ground as they dump the trash into the truck.
I live on Jackson St. between 8th and 9th and the trash on the sidewalks is completely out of hand. My wife and I sweep and clean our sidewalk every Saturday but it does no good. The people living between 8th and 9th and Jackson throw all of their garbage directly onto the sidewalk…it is completely ridiculous.
What can be done to clean this block and keep it clean ?
Yes this! I watched trash fall out out a bin as they threw it in the truck, and the garbage men just left it there.
Also this is the only place I have ever lived where trash pick up is only once a week. In NYC, it was 3x and in the suburbs, we paid for it but they came 2x a week.
Nah, I live in a different densely populated city now (former East Passyunk resident), and we have weekly trash pickup and biweekly recycling pickup, and none of these trash problems exist. There is an attitude, especially in South Philly, about littering that is just so lazy.
My neighborhood (btwn 13th and 11th/Snyder and Wolf Sts) is a disgrace! Not all homes have trash on their pavement but the corner properties are the worse culprits… the majority are rental properties. The sewers have bottles, dog poo bags or wrappers clogging the grates. The other properties are absentee Home Owners, buying properties and then leave for weeks with piles of circulars or philly reviews piled on their porch! Then you have the dumpers, walk down 12th street btwn Daly and Tree Sts and see Televisions/Toilets/Tires.. (again this is rental properties) and walk further down to the Old Sponge Factory (which is Pigeon Poop Sanctuary) and see Rice Bags, Couches, trash bags and shopping carts! Walk down Jackson Street (Btwn 7th & 9th Sts) and you think you are living in squalor! When is it okay to have 25 potted plants, BBQ Grills, sofa Chairs, tents and Umbrellas blocking the pavement! I thought our backyard was used for your personal use. Then the alleys! This is used as a dumping ground for construction trash (cement, wood piling, bricks) or neighbors old fences and bbq grills.. the list is endless! Our Mayor and Councilman need to come to the neighborhood to see their constituents.. they want the neighbors to move their cars from side to side to clean streets. Why not use manpower instead. Last week I saw men in “Sports Complex” Jackets cleaning the other side of Oregon Avenue! why not hire manpower! If not, why not Community Service… Let my tax dollars that jail minor crimes to do Community Service to clean the neighborhood and Alleys! The mayor wants to tax soda for RecCenters I rather see my dollars go in my own neighborhood for Trash!!! But also, Neighbors wake up! We live in the 21st Century, can we still live in a society that you do not care that there is trash in the street!
Come out of your house and clean the day after trash is collected. or if not at least every Saturday come out and clean your pavement and street!
I live on 9th between morris and moore and try to sweep up and down the street on a weekly basis. Yeah, it sucks sometimes being one of the few residents trying to keep the neighborhood clean and it infuriates me when I see people dropping trash on the street, but at least our block is not piled with trash all the time. It doesn’t take much to maintain the street…..Stop complaining about it and actually do something about it. Actions speak much louder than words/twitter accounts!
Philadelphia has to bust up the trash union and privatize its sanitation- like they did with parking. In Toronto for example ( a remarkably clean city much larger than philly) residents are provided sturdy trash and recycling bins with attached lids. Think about it- not everyone in philly has the means to go buy these bins at Lowes or wherever, so they often settle for putting out loose trash. Also, how about foot-operated public trash bins and not this folly we are currently watching fail?