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Here at TTF, we talk a lot about how recycling can help to protect our waterways. Our Ethical Electronics Recycling Events help keep dangerous chemicals from electronics from leaching into our creeks and rivers. But what about plastics? From all of our work doing stream cleanups, we’ve found that a huge percentage of the trash we pick up is plastic — usually in the form of food or beverage packaging materials and plastic bags. (The City of Philadelphia currently recycles plastics #1 and #2, but not #3-#7. Montgomery County has different regulations.)
This month’s Grid magazine has an article on where Philadelphia residents can recycle plastics #3-7:
Because No. 5 is the next most common plastic (after 1 and 2), Weaver’s Way Co-op (weaversway.coop) collects it—including Brita filters—as part of the “Gimme 5” campaign. Plastics must be clean, dry and clearly stamped with the number 5. Collections take place on the third Saturday of each month at the Co-op’s garage (524 Carpenter Lane), and all the plastics are then shipped to the Gimme 5 processing facility in New York State. The South Street Whole Foods (929 South Street) also collects No. 5 plastics.
The other numbers are trickier. The foam variety of No. 6–Polystyrene and the dreaded No. 7–Other categories are notoriously difficult to recycle. But Recycling Services, Inc. (365 Elm Street, Pottstown, 610-323-8545) takes all comers (numbers 1 through 7), and the facility is open for public collection on Tuesdays and Saturdays (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). They charge an $8/car gate fee, so consider loading up with your neighbors’ No. 3 through 7s, too, before you head out there.
If you drink a lot of bottled beverages, you can recycle the caps at the Big Green Earth Store (934 South Street) and at Aveda stores throughout the Philadelphia region (the Shops at Liberty Place, Cherry Hill Mall, Willow Grove Park and Exton Square).
And, in addition to recycling plastic, we can just try to use it less — especially when it comes to unnecessary purchases like bottled water!
Many thanks to all the wonderful, dedicated volunteers who came out to help clean up the creek behind Cedarbrook Middle School this weekend!
More pictures will be posted soon on our Facebook page.
For more clean-ups, events, and volunteer opportunities, please visit our Events page.
TTF would like to give a huge THANK YOU to the amazing, motivated Model Neighborhood residents who turned out on Saturday morning for a great day of street cleaning, porch painting, and illegal dumping prevention.
We’d also like to thank the City of Philadelphia for donating supplies, Wawa and Fresh Grocer for donating food, Reverend Williams and the Chew and Belfield Neighborhood Club for their support and the Philadelphia Water Department’s Waterways Restoration Team for their time, manpower, machines and general awesomeness. With their help, we were able to remove tons of trash from the lot at the corner of Clearview and Tulpehocken Streets. In addition, Clearview Street residents came out to beautify their street by painting their porches and railings, cleaning the street and removing graffiti.
Here are some fun photos from the day:
Reverend Williams, Katie and Sarah pose with the Waterways Restoration Team
Ashley leads a group of our youngest volunteers
To see more photos, check out our Facebook page!
Our next event for Clearview Street residents is coming up on May 1st. For more information, see our Events page.
In Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, 21.57 tons (43,149 pounds) of trash and litter was removed from local waterways and the Delaware Estuary in a coordinated effort by volunteers on International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day. The ICC, sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, is the world’s largest single-day, volunteer effort focused on cleaning the world’s waterways! TTF participated along with a group of dedicated volunteers, picking up 1402 pounds of trash and litter at Wall Park. See photos and our original post here.
Thanks to all of you who helped to improve the quality of our waterways and environment!
We’ve tallied up the data from our clean-up at Wall Park, and it is astonishing to see all that we picked up from the creek and its banks in just a few hours! We collected:
1402 pounds of trash, including:
- 205 food wrappers/containers
- 156 plastic bags
- 152 glass bottles
- 90 plastic bottles
- 87 beverage cans
- 59 lids/caps
- 45 cups/plates/knives/forks/spoons
- 42 cigarettes
- 31 straws/stirrers
- 20 cigar tips
- 9 toys
- 7 pieces of clothing
- 7 pull tabs
- 5 plastic tarps
- 4 car parts
- 2 bicycle tires
- 2 paper bags
- 1 55-gallon drum
- 1 balloon
- 1 bait container
- 1 fishing line
- 1 light bulb
- 1 lighter
Some of the most peculiar items we found were: beer cans from the 1970’s, pottery shards, wire cables, a circuit board, a four-pronged light-bulb, a gigantic tarp, rubber gloves, and full cans of iced tea.
Thanks again to all the great volunteers who came out to make the day a success!
