The City of Philadelphia says it’s costing millions to recycle what little they could out of your bin. “It costs us more to recycle than to collect trash which was unprecedented five years ago,” said Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams.
Back in 2018, Philadelphia’s Action News investigation revealed the City began incinerating everything from plastic bottles to metal cans. Our cameras watched as garbage trucks hauled in garbage to be burned at the Southwest Philadelphia Covanta facility.
Now, two years later, Commissioner Williams says only 14 percent of what goes curbside is actually repurposed. “Could we increase that rate? Sure we could, if residents took a moment to realize what is recyclable,” he said.
The crisis began when China, which used to buy much of America’s recycling, tightened standards, turning away what it called contaminated foreign garbage. Nearly a decade ago, the City was making $6 million dollars a year shipping out Philadelphia trash. But with added restrictions, and under its new five-year contract with Waste Management, it now pays roughly 10 to re-purpose what it could.
Commissioner Williams added, “I think the contamination rate is going to be a factor for years to come and we have to change the way we recycle at home and collect at curbside.” Williams still believes it is imperative we recycle, and that Philadelphians are required to do so under state law.