In last month’s issue, I wrote about how Philly could start a City-run composting drop-off program. Unfortunately, the City might not have the staffing to mount such an effort. Forty years ago, when the City was launching its recycling program, it had 23 employees in its recycling office. Today, the Department of Sanitation has two.
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Are you tossing those pants because you wore them out, or just because you don’t wear them anymore? The modern fashion industry treats clothing as disposable, and it is tempting for us to do the same. Big box stores and multinationals make money selling you way more than necessary. Really, how many pairs of pants
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I started Bennett Compost 16 years ago with the goal of making composting easy and accessible for Philadelphians. From the moment we started, people asked, “When do you think Philly will offer composting to every household like trash and recycling?” I used to say, “Ten years at the earliest.” Sixteen years later, my answer hasn’t
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At her inauguration on January 2, 2024, Cherelle Parker said, “We will make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in the nation.” Philadelphia has long been plagued by litter, poorly-contained household trash and illegal dumping (“short dumping”) of waste that should be taken directly to a commercial dump: old tires, debris from construction,
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On a drive through Tacony Creek Park in the spring of 2020, Lawncrest resident Dallas Herbert Sr. could barely get around illegally-dumped construction debris and tires. He was appalled. An executive board member of the Lawncrest Community Association, Herbert asked his older neighbors about this particularly trashed stretch called Snake Road; many informed him that
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The Big Favorite wants to redirect our worn out panties, briefs and bras into the zero-waste economy — but there’s a catch. Used polyester-infused underwear is not currently suitable for recycling. With no place left to go but the trash can, undies join the estimated 11 million pounds of textiles dumped in landfills yearly. In
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When Moth Snow was in college, they would spend afternoons scouring thrift stores for discarded sartorial gems. Perusing the racks, they’d perform a kind of tactile divination, feeling the hem of a sweater or collar of a blouse, then guessing its fiber content. Was it cotton? Wool? A polyester blend? Their fingertips would seek answers,
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Soft-spoken Ray Daly, the founding owner of Ray’s Reusables, is on a zero-waste mission. But her approach is more supportive sherpa than zealous missionary. While noting on her website that only 9% of the 8.3 billion pounds of plastic produced before 2019 have been recycled — leaving billions in landfills or the oceans — Daly’s
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The amount of electronic waste the U.S. produces — 6.9 million tons annually — is an overwhelming problem, but for Steve Figgatt, founder of the e-waste recycling business Sycamore International, it’s also a nearly limitless opportunity. Thirteen years ago Figgatt, 36, started the West Grove-based business — which now employs 73 people and processes 40,000
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Do your overflowing trash can and recycling bin make you feel like a failure as you drag them to the curb on trash day? You’re supposed to reduce, reuse, recycle, but everything you buy comes encased in plastic. If you buy it online, that plastic comes packed in paper and yet more plastic inside a
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