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Gloria Renee Kellam is tired of finding old furniture, tires, construction debris and bags full of trash dumped in her neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia.
“It’s just horrible,” Kellam said. “No matter how many times we call to the city … we get ignored.”
A nonprofit in Kellam’s neighborhood hopes it can be part of the solution. Empowered Community Development Corporation is creating three legal dump sites in Southwest Philadelphia, with large public trash cans where anyone can dispose of household trash.
“We wanted to create an outlet for people to be able to legally get rid of their waste,” said Isaiah T. Martin, Empowered CDC’s president and CEO. Martin recently announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District race.
Community trash cans open 24/7
Empowered CDC’s legal dump site project is part of a slew of local anti-dumping initiatives funded by grants from the William Penn Foundation. Under the same grant program, a nonprofit in North Philadelphia started offering vouchers to small waste haulers to dispose of trash legally in October.
One motivation for Empowered CDC’s project was the limitations of the city-run sanitation convenience centers, which accept household trash, oversized items, recycling and yard debris from Philadelphia residents. The city-run centers are open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., making them difficult to access for people who work 9-to-5 jobs, Martin said.
“At our sanitation site in Southwest Philadelphia, you’ll see trash piled up there from the weekend,” he said. “You’ll see trash piled up there overnight.”
The three legal dump sites Empowered CDC is setting up will be open 24/7. Martin said they’ll be monitored regularly by the team of neighborhood ambassadors and emptied every two weeks, or as needed by Trash 2 Treasure, the nonprofit run by Terrill Haigler, better known as Ya Fav Trashman.
Two large trash cans at Empowered CDC’s first community waste disposal site on Elmwood Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. (Sophia Schmidt/WHYY)
Each dump site will be equipped with two large, 96-gallon trash cans. The first is open at Elmwood Avenue and 56th Street.
