Twice-weekly trash pickup is getting tested in two Philly neighborhoods

South Philly and Center City should start looking a little cleaner.

Beginning Dec. 2, the city is adding a second trash collection day for the two neighborhoods. The $11.9 million pilot program is part of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s promise to make Philadelphia the nation’s “cleanest and greenest” big city, and will cover Callowhill Street to Pattison Avenue, between 30th Street and Columbus Boulevard.

“We need to put in measures for prevention,” said Carlton Williams, director of the city’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. “We believe that twice-a-week trash collections is going to help eliminate the need for people to dump in locations other than placing it out for their normal collection scheduled day.”

The second pickup day will correspond with an area’s standard pickup day, as follows:

There will be no second pickups during weeks when there is a city holiday. Recycling will remain a once-weekly pickup.

Shortly after Parker was elected, she vowed to make cleaning up the city’s trash and illegal dumping a priority for her administration. In February, she said about dumping, “You watch us. We’re going to enforce the law here.”

While sections of Philadelphia like North Philly and Kensington are hit harder by illegal dumping, Williams said they chose South Philly and Center City for this pilot for two reasons — the area’s population density leading to overloaded trash storage, and existing cleanup infrastructure. According to Williams, South Philly has enough trucks to double its pickups. Meanwhile, North Philly already requires twice as many trucks for just weekly service.

But the city plans to expand the program to North and West Philly beginning next fall. It is already using money budgeted to the pilot to acquire more trucks and trash compactors, as well as increase staffing.

“We really wanted to get it started. We wanted to make an immediate impact,” Williams said.

The city will measure the success of the program by comparing annual changes to its litter data (a public litter index report was last published in 2019), and the frequency of 311 calls for illegal dumping. The plan is for twice-weekly pickups to become permanent as long as data indicate that the program is making an impact on litter and dumping, Williams said.

The city is holding Zoom sessions for community members to learn more about the program and ask questions. The next sessions will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m., Wednesday at 5 p.m., and Thursday at 6 p.m. Information on joining the meetings is available via phila.gov.