• Race and Equity
  • Environment
  • Food
  • Circular Economy
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Grid Podcast: The People Left Behind

plastic pollution

Zero Waste Working Group Meeting

We learn and promote ways to reduce our impact on the environment we inhabit by reducing the waste we generate.

More
February 20, 2026
1 min read

Zero Waste Working Group Meeting

We learn and promote ways to reduce our impact on the environment we inhabit by reducing the waste we generate.

More
April 29, 2025
1 min read

Recent Comments

  1. Kathy on Could Philadelphia’s environmental science high school be for sale?
  2. bobby on The efforts to eradicate traffic deaths in Philadelphia launched in 2016. Ten years in, the City is still far from its goal
  3. Kitty J on A group of park-loving volunteers keeps Cobbs Creek beautiful
  4. Andre Williams on A new photography project features portraits and interviews with the people who roll through Philly’s streets
  5. captain obvious on The efforts to eradicate traffic deaths in Philadelphia launched in 2016. Ten years in, the City is still far from its goal

gridmagazine
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ 2026 Philadelphia Bike Expo: The Philly Bike Expo is an annual weekend-long event featuring exhibitors, seminars, presentations and events representing the spectrum of cycling. When: Saturday, March 14th (10:00 AM - 5:00 PM) - Sunday, March 15th (10:00 AM - 4:00 PM) Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center 1101 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 ➡️ Philly Pigeon Tour: Join us on our Italian Market Pigeon Tour. Your expert pigeon guide will bring you through the historic market and visit nearby established pigeon flocks. You’ll also get to see the market pigeons nesting in old buildings and braving traffic with confidence. When: Saturday, March 14th (11:00 AM - 12:30 PM) Where: Get A Gato 638 Christian Street Philadelphia, PA 19147 ➡️ Tree House Book Swap: Tree House Books is hosting seasonal book swaps this year! Bring your friends, family, kids, friend’s kids, kid’s kids and some books to swap! Don’t forget a tote bag, too, to carry all your new reads. When: Saturday, March 14th (2:00 PM - 5:00 PM) Where: North Philly Peace Park 2226 W. Jefferson Street Philadelphia, PA 19121 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
For Ana, 19, of Brazil, and Jonathan, 17, of Guate For Ana, 19, of Brazil, and Jonathan, 17, of Guatemala, the southern border of the United States marks the line between life and death. Ana and Jonathan, both clients of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of Pennsylvania (HIAS PA), a local humanitarian nonprofit that provides legal services to low-income immigrants in the state, now live in Philadelphia — but with looming uncertainty. Ana’s journey began in 2019. Her mother wanted to reunite with Ana’s father, who had left Brazil for Philadelphia a few years earlier for work. Hard-pressed for money, Ana’s mother applied for visas and was denied. Instead of taking the U.S. government’s no for an answer, she hired a “coyote,” or guide, to smuggle her and Ana into America. Despite a difficult relationship with her parents, Ana, then 12, had no choice but to accompany her mother. For Jonathan, gang violence and death threats forced him to leave his homeland. His mother, already living in Philadelphia, was unable to obtain a visa for him and hired a coyote to take him across the border in 2024. Thus, Ana and Jonathan arrived without legal documents. They’re hardly alone in that status. Save The Children, a global nonprofit that works to improve the lives of children, reported that in 2022, the “Department of Health and Human Services received a record 128,904 unaccompanied, undocumented minors, up from 122,731 in the prior year. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Constance Garcia-Barrio 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #immigration #immigrantstories #immigrantrights #immigrationlaw #immigrationlawyer
It’s not easy to get to the Lankenau Environmental It’s not easy to get to the Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School. The school sits on 17 acres at the northwest border of Philadelphia, a pocket of land not served by SEPTA, forcing the district to bus students to and from school. In exchange for the long ride, however, students learn in an expansive outdoor classroom — the neighboring Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education has served as an extension of the grounds since Lankenau became an environmental magnet school in 2005. If the School District of Philadelphia is to be believed, students will be better served by Lankenau closing and having its programs merged into Walter B. Saul High School. (The original plan to merge the school with Roxborough High School was changed.) But “Don’t Sell Lankenau Environmental” was spelled out in bright yellow letters on the T-shirts worn by Lankenau students and teachers at a Feb. 4 open house and community listening session, addressing what they believe is the real reason the district proposes to close the school and send its students to another school. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Chris Baker Evens #philadelphia #environmentaleducation #environmentalscience #environmentaleducation #educationmatters #magnetschool
For roughly 20% of Americans who ride public trans For roughly 20% of Americans who ride public transportation, the Transit app is their guide. Displaying nearby routes and mapping step-by-step transit directions, it also asks users to give feedback on their rides. But for SEPTA riders, their responses to Transit’s in-app questions about station and vehicle conditions during a trip and overall satisfaction at its completion aren’t seen by the transportation authority. That’s because SEPTA does not subscribe to Terminal, Transit’s customer experience platform. Rather, it relies on its own methods to acquire customer feedback. The agency conducts a quarterly customer satisfaction survey, which asks riders to rate cleanliness, safety, reliability and other aspects of the system. “We are super focused on those numbers right now,” says Lex Powers, chief officer of customer experience. “It’s a whole rallying cry in the agency to improve these scores. And over the past year or two, for the most part, they have gone up.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue 📸 Photo courtesy of Alga Serba #philadelphia #septa #septaphilly #iseptaphilly #publictransit #publictransportation
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Philly Homegrown First Fridays: Each month, we open our doors for an evening of local love: shop unique, handcrafted goods, meet the makers, and connect with your neighbors. Enjoy complimentary wine, light refreshments, and a vibrant atmosphere where art, plants, and people come together. When: Friday, March 6th (6:00 PM - 9:00 PM) Where: Plant and People 3952 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19104 ➡️ Birding with Philly Queer Birders: It’s been a long winter, so come shake off the cold with queer community and #birdjoy! Join Philly Queer Birders and Audubon Mid-Atlantic as we check out early spring visitors, and perhaps some surprises along the way. When: Saturday, March 7th (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: The Discovery Center 3401 Reservoir Drive Philadelphia, PA 19121 ➡️ A Journey to Backyard Biodiversity: How do you transform a tangled mess of a backyard and a traditional lawn and into a thriving wildlife oasis? Join native gardening enthusiast Katie Fisk as she shares how she used native plants to turn her own yard into a haven for pollinators and birds. When: Saturday, March 7th (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens 631 Berwyn Baptist Road Devon, PA 19333 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
Across the nation, more and more youth are reachin Across the nation, more and more youth are reaching for a bicycle for recreation and as a means of transportation. In fact, the advocacy group PeopleforBikes found in a 2024 survey that ridership for children ages 3 to 17 increased from 46% to 56%, reversing a decline. And on March 14 and 15 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the 15th Philadelphia Bike Expo (PBE) is working to instill cycling confidence in young people with its Kids Arena, aiming to build on that upward trend. The kids riding arena features separated courses with skill and safety stations for a full range of experience levels. The program will be overseen by Sam Pearson, a lifelong cyclist and the Healthy Communities program manager at Pennsylvania Downtown Center. “It’s a skills course,” Pearson says. “We’re trying to get them to show how well they follow the signs and interact with each other as they’re circulating.” The course “road,” as in years past, is halved by a center line, and riders must navigate cones and each other. There is also a roundabout where riders have to obey traffic signs, take turns and decide when to go straight or proceed around the traffic circle, Pearson says. There will be separate stations for riders to focus on a specific skill, and others where they must combine those skills in practice. Pearson says there are numerous benefits to these kinds of courses, called traffic gardens. Beyond balance work, she says children can work on gliding, braking, staying in their lane and responding to road signs. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Dawn Kane 📸 Photo courtesy of Diana Steif #philadelphia #safestreets #bikesafety #bicyclesafety #phillybikeexpo #bikephl
Amanda Parezo isn’t your typical bike lane advocat Amanda Parezo isn’t your typical bike lane advocate. For one thing, she doesn’t ride a bike. Parezo once loved cycling around Philadelphia. But in 2021, after a game of kickball at Hancock Playground in East Kensington, she was struck in the back by a stray bullet and paralyzed from the waist down. Now, she gets around town using a wheelchair. She rolls from her condo in Old City to her job at Thomas Jefferson University, where she teaches occupational therapy. In a city where sidewalks are often damaged or blocked, Parezo often ends up rolling into a bike lane. But bike lanes, she says, often aren’t free of barriers either. When a vehicle is stopped or parked in the lane, Parezo has to roll into the street, greatly increasing her risk of injury. “I feel like something’s going to happen as soon as I get into the street,” she says. “If it’s nighttime, that makes it exponentially worse, and then I just won’t go out because I’m scared. I’ll just stay home.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #visionzero #safestreets #accessibilitymatters #accessibilityforall #bikelane
By all accounts, 67-year-old Harry Fenton was a mo By all accounts, 67-year-old Harry Fenton was a model of safe cycling. He used hand signals when he was turning and stopped at every stop sign and red light, even when there wasn’t a car anywhere in sight. To be visible, he wore fluorescent jackets, vests and shirts, and he never left the house without his helmet or fully-charged lights. He found routes that felt safe and then stuck to them. Fenton, in other words, did everything right. But he couldn’t prevent what happened to him on the morning of Sept. 2 while he was riding his bike in Fairmount Park. At the intersection of Belmont Avenue and Avenue of the Republic, a speeding driver struck him and fled. Fenton was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, making him the fourth cyclist killed in Philadelphia last year, and the eighth person killed in a crash on Belmont Avenue in the past six years. Belmont Avenue has been part of Philadelphia’s “High Injury Network” — the 12% of roads that are responsible for 80% of the city’s total fatal and serious road injuries — for years. So why have the dangerous conditions there remained unaddressed? The answer is linked to the nearly decade-long history of Vision Zero, the City’s safe streets initiative. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #visionzero #safestreets #bikesafety #bicyclesafety #bikephl
New issue alert! Grid 202 has arrived and with it New issue alert! Grid 202 has arrived and with it comes another set of important stories to tell. Here are just a few of the ones you’ll find in this month’s pages: • The efforts to eradicate traffic deaths in Philadelphia launched in 2016. Ten years in, the City is still far from its goal • Could Philadelphia’s environmental science high school be for sale? • For some undocumented minors living in Philadelphia, making it to the United States is just one step in a long journey to safety and security ➡️ Read the full issue now at gridphilly.com 📸 Cover photo by Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #phillynews #sustainability #sustainableliving #environmentalnews #independentjournalism
📱 Shortly before my 24th birthday, I decided to re 📱 Shortly before my 24th birthday, I decided to replace my iPhone with a flip phone. I have abstractly considered making the change on numerous occasions, tired of the Internet following me around everywhere I go, always on the verge of being mindlessly lured to it. During the short portion of my life when the Internet was stationary, I spent a lot of time sitting at the family computer. I was jealous of my older sister when she got a cellphone. I begged my parents for an iPod Touch, making do for a while with a hand-me-down Samsung that wasn’t connected to a phone number and only worked on WiFi. When I finally got a smartphone in eighth grade, I was congratulated. Yet after a decade of smartphone ownership, I’m unsatisfied. It hasn’t improved my life, it’s made it worse. How much time has been lost to a bottomless feed? How often have I gone to check the weather, but instead open Twitter, browse for ten minutes before ripping myself away and locking the screen, only to return to my physical surroundings and realize that I still don’t know the forecast? ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue #philadelphia #technology #smartphones #digitaldetox #flipphone #offline
🏞️ The Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia’s 🏞️ The Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia’s largest parks-focused nonprofit, has tread perilous ground over the past several years as it leads one of the largest open space transformations in the city’s recent history: a $250 million overhaul of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park in South Philadelphia. The conservancy has caught flak from some community and advocacy groups that are critical of elements of the plan. As reported in Grid #187, it is just the latest chapter in a long history of controversy over public park management in Philadelphia dating back to colonial times. Despite these circumstances, Anthony Sorrentino, who became chief executive officer of the conservancy in October, is taking a decidedly optimistic — and open — approach to the job. Even before his first day, Sorrentino was waxing poetic and engaging in conversation about Philadelphia’s park system in a LinkedIn post. During an interview with Grid at the conservancy’s West Fairmount Park offices in November 2025, Sorrentino opened with an offer to “call me Tony” and said he planned to serve as a “happy warrior” for Philadelphia’s parks, boosting not only their physical quality but their profile in civic life. “The conservancy is 28, going on 29 years of age, and has been going through its own growth spurts all that time, and I think it’s matured into an organization that’s kind of ready to be more than one or two things,” Sorrentino said, noting that it has traditionally served in a fundraising capacity. “There’s a moment for greater, lower-‘a’ advocacy. That might be the next level of maturity for the organization.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Kyle Bagenstose 📸 Albert Yee #philadelphia #urbannature #urbanparks #phillyparks #fairmountpark #fdrpark
💍 Growing up, Maddy Hirsch wanted two things: to m 💍 Growing up, Maddy Hirsch wanted two things: to make useful things with her hands and to own her own business. Guided by those goals, she enrolled in Temple University’s entrepreneurial studies program, only to feel disillusioned with what she saw as its narrow focus on traditional and tech startups. She transferred to the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, but found it too centered on conceptual art. “I wanted to understand how my work moves through the world on a very physical level,” Hirsch says. “I like making tangible things that people can interact with every day.” Before dropping out of Tyler, she took a jewelry-making class that helped bring her path into focus. Here was a medium that blended art and craft and opened up a feasible avenue toward entrepreneurship. “Making jewelry made perfect sense to me: It’s practical, fun and pretty,” Hirsch notes. “So in 2017, I started working for a jeweler in Philly, and I’ve been doing this ever since.” After a few years working her way up — from running errands on Jewelers’ Row to setting diamonds at a hip-hop jewelry store on South Street — Hirsch opened her own brick-and-mortar shop, Tshatshke Jewelry Studio (Tshatshke is pronounced “CHOTCH-kee”) in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Emily Kovach 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #jewelrymaker #jewelryshop #phillyartist #supportlocalartists #supportlocalbusinesses
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Elkins Park Library Winter Seed Sowing: Join Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership and Penn State Extension Master Gardeners to learn about the importance of native plants and how to grow them ourselves. Attendees will learn how to start seeds outside in containers, protected from wildlife, while also benefiting from the cold temperatures. When: Saturday, February 21st (11:00 AM - 12:30 PM) Where: Elkins Park Free Library 563 Church Road Elkins Park, PA 19027 ➡️ Meeting of the Griots: Join us for an unforgettable intergenerational celebration of story and local history during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. February 2026 marks the centennial celebration’s theme: “A Century of Black History Commemorations.” Meeting of the Griots Exhibition is a free, family-friendly gathering bringing together elders, youth, artists, scholars, and community members to share stories, preserve heritage, and experience culture and connection. When: Saturday, February 21st (11:00 AM - 3:00 PM) Where: 1501 North Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19121 ➡️ Big Rocks, Big Trees: Some of the biggest Tulip trees in the Wissahickon await you on this 3.5 mile hike using a lesser traveled footpath in the Lower Wissahickon. On the way we will see other Wissahickon iconic landmarks such as Kelpius Cave and 100 Steps. When: Saturday, February 21st (9:00 AM - 11:30 AM) Where: Hermit Lane Trailhead Kiosk 2RG2+44G Philadelphia, PA 19128 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🍬 Emily Grossman and Alyssa Bonventure, co-owners 🍬 Emily Grossman and Alyssa Bonventure, co-owners of All Aboard Candy, opened their Rittenhouse Square store last June with a clear mission. “If you’re an adult, we want you to feel like a kid again,” says Bonventure. “And if you’re a kid, we want to introduce you to the joy of feeling like a kid in a candy store.” People of a certain age will recall when penny candy stores were as common as convenience stores are today. Luckily for candy lovers of all ages, Grossman and Bonventure believe “candy is having a moment,” in large part thanks to social media. Friends since the sixth grade, the two 30-somethings saw their peers experimenting with cool hobbies when the COVID-19 pandemic began. They brainstormed business ideas, giving jewelry making a try, but found it way too complicated. Then Bonventure remembered a bachelorette party she had attended in New York where the hostess created a “charcuterie” tray of colorful bulk candies. She and Grossman thought they could have fun with the candy board concept and maybe even sell some. Both women grew up in “fun food” households where candy was taboo-free. Grossman’s great-grandmother kept chocolates in her bedside table, and her mother “never went to synagogue without a bag of Haribo gummies in her pocket.” Bonventure, meanwhile, fondly remembers frequenting the Candy Kitchen in Ocean City, Maryland, as a child. Partnering on a candy business just felt right. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Marilyn Anthony 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #allaboardcandy #candyshop #candystore #supportlocalbusinesses #shopphilly
📝 Publisher’s Notes: Controlling the Past 📝 Last 📝 Publisher’s Notes: Controlling the Past 📝 Last Thursday, National Park Service employees pried loose the plaques at the slavery exhibit from the President’s House where Judge’s story, and the story of other slaves of our first president, were on display. The exhibit had been there since 2010, but it fell victim to the Trump administration’s goal to have only parts of our history on display. Unfortunately, being patriotic in this country is complicated. Our history includes slavery and our profoundly cruel and barbarous treatment of Native Americans. We aspire to be the land of the free, so examining our roots causes cognitive dissonance. Yet there is no choice but to accept that cruelty is in our creation story. These are the facts. The deluge of lies that comes from our highest office recalls this chilling quote from George Orwell’s character Winston Smith in “1984”: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past … Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it.” ➡️ Read the full note from our publisher at gridphilly.com ✍️ Alex Mulcahy #philadelphia #publishersnotes #ushistory #historymatters #environmentaljustice #environmentaljusticematters
🫙 When people walk into SHIFT Sustainable Goods + 🫙 When people walk into SHIFT Sustainable Goods + Services, after the aroma of eucalyptus welcomes them in, they might find themselves looking at the chalkboard and wall of glass jars, feeling like they’ve stepped into a general store from a previous century. But at SHIFT, rather than creating nostalgia, reducing waste and protecting the earth for future generations is the number one goal. Tucked on Haverford Avenue in Narberth, SHIFT is a refillery, where customers can bring their own containers (or purchase one at the store) and buy any of more than fifty liquid household products by weight, such as laundry detergent, deodorant and hand soap. When it comes to the containers customers bring to fill, Eagle and Bezak have seen it all: glass jars, an old whiskey growler — one customer even ran over from a nearby laundromat with a drinking glass, filling it with just enough detergent for their load of laundry. These small, individual choices to avoid buying products packaged in single-use plastics are at the core of SHIFT’s values. “Every shift counts,” Bezak says. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Julia Lowe 📸 Chris Baker Evens #narberth #refillery #refillshop #refillrevolution #zerowaste #wastefree
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ 2nd Hand Circus Scrap Night - Sustainable Love: On the eve of Valentine’s Day, 2nd Hand Circus invites you to fall back in love — with the things that have been left behind. Scrap Night is a curated evening of short circus works made from thrifted, passed-down, recycled, or once-forgotten objects. Eight circus artists each receive (or bring) a secondhand item and transform it into a brand-new act. Think juggling, contortion, aerial, fashion experiments, and delightful curiosity — all sparked by old stuff with a story. When: Friday, February 13th (8:00 PM - 10:30 PM) Where: Thunderbird Hall 2856 Frankford Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19134 ➡️ 2026 Winter-Spring Permaculture Design Course: Come join us for our seventh annual permaculture design course! The permaculture design course, or PDC, is an intensive 72-hour internationally recognized permaculture certification. It’s designed to give participants the inspiration and knowledge they need to make a positive change in the world, needed now more than ever. It will give you the skills necessary to design your home/yard/landscape into an ecologically-resilient edible system, and for some, it could be the first stepping stone to a permaculture career in design, education, consulting, or regenerative farming. When: Saturday, February 14th (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) Where: Hundred Fruit Farm 1744 Holicong Road New Hope, PA 18938 ➡️ Great Backyard Bird Count: Join experienced, knowledgeable guides from the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club for a birding walk at Laurel Hill East or Laurel Hill West, and learn to identify birds by sound and sight and record them in the Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual global event during which participants around the world record data about local birds to help scientists better understand and protect them. When: Sunday, February 15th (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM) Where: Laurel Hill East 3822 Ridge Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19132 or Laurel Hill West 225 Belmont Avenue Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🪲 Will you find yourself alone again for Valentine 🪲 Will you find yourself alone again for Valentine’s Day? It can be hard to find the right someone, but you’re not alone. Female oriental cockroaches can also have a hard time finding a mate. But when one gives up on finding a male to settle down with, she moves on to plan B: The female oriental cockroach can reproduce all on her own through the ultimate act of self-love, laying a clutch of eggs that hatch out as her clones. The story of the lonesome cockroach is just one of dozens profiled in Kenneth D. Frank’s “Sex in City Plants, Animals, Fungi, and More: A Guide to Reproductive Diversity,” the second work by the author of “The Ecology of Center City, Philadelphia.” Frank, a naturalist and retired physician who lives in the Fitler Square neighborhood, has long been fascinated by mosses and other diminutive plants that grow between the bricks of his sidewalk. He says the idea for the book came from his study of primitive plants called liverworts. “They’re so tiny, and some require both sexes to produce spores. And you wonder how they get together.” Beyond the natural limitations faced by immobile plants, Frank realized the urban landscape erects other barriers: buildings, roads and fragmented habitats. “It came to me that it would be fun to look at specific organisms and probe into how they do it.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Jared Gruenwald #philadelphia #urbannature #urbanwildlife #wildlifeinthecity #entomology #insects
🌳 Deep inside Fairmount Park, some hardworking dre 🌳 Deep inside Fairmount Park, some hardworking dreamers are changing the way Philadelphia treats, uses and benefits from trees that historically would have been thrown in a dump. The Philadelphia Reforestation Hub, found within the park’s Organic Recycling Center (ORC), is focused on integrated wood waste diversion. Part of its approach to urban forestry management, the hub assesses logs salvaged from across the region — the result of ice and snow, wind, storms and removals for manicured parks — for possible new uses. In 2024, the hub diverted nearly 450 logs from waste piles, milling enough to remove more than 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere. And at least 15% of the proceeds generated from lumber sales that year went to TreePhilly, which plants trees in the city. At the heart of the hub are Carlos Alvarez, director of social enterprise operations, and sawmill operations manager Freddy Ortiz. Together, they have graduated four trainees and taught hundreds of Philadelphia schoolchildren about the social and environmental benefits of saving, using and repurposing fallen trees, while spotlighting best practices for safety and proper tree care. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Daniel Sean Kaye 📸 Tracie Van Auken #philadelphia #fairmountpark #urbannature #reforestation #upcycledwood #wastediversion
🚲 Who rides in Philly? There’s the stereotype: the 🚲 Who rides in Philly? There’s the stereotype: the white, male, hip, young, upwardly mobile cyclist. And then there’s the much more diverse reality: the immigrant e-bike delivery riders, the scooterists, the skateboarders, the kids pedaling their way to school. “We Ride in Philly” is a project, in conjunction with the grassroots bike advocacy organization Philly Bike Action!, to uncover the broader spectrum of micro-mobility users in the city. We set up at a fixed location and talk to whomever will stop to chat. We seek to not only see but to understand: Why do these Philadelphians ride? What dangers do they face on the street? And how do they use the city’s growing network of protected infrastructure? The share of the population that rides in Philadelphia is ultimately pretty small. According to the U.S. Census, about 2% of Philadelphia workers commute by bike. That is, in large part, because many Philadelphians don’t feel comfortable getting around in the city’s current bike lane network. That begs the question: Who else might ride in Philly if we made it safer? ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Jordan Teicher #philadelphia #bikephilly #bikephl #citybiking #bikesafety #bicyclesafety
Follow on Instagram

© 2026 - All rights reservedGrid Magazine

  • Race and Equity
  • Environment
  • Food
  • Circular Economy
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Grid Podcast: The People Left Behind
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Online Store
  • Donate
  • Distribution
  • Magazine
  • Contact
  • Race and Equity
  • Environment
  • Food
  • Circular Economy
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Grid Podcast: The People Left Behind