By Sophia Schmidt, WHYY News
Last week, an advocacy group called Trash Academy launched a letter-writing campaign targeting Mayor Cherlle Parker and several council members, calling for city-run disposal centers to accept waste from small commercial haulers for an affordable fee.
“What we’re trying to do is give the small haulers somewhere that they can dump, without actually having to dump on our streets,” said Lois Williams, a leader of Trash Academy and member of HACE’s Neighborhood Advisory Subcommittee who lives in Philly’s Fairhill section.
The city’s six sanitation convenience centers currently accept waste only from residents — not commercial haulers. They also ban construction waste, which makes up a significant part of the items dumped in fast-developing neighborhoods.
Advocates say that legal, private disposal options are not cost-effective for small, independent commercial haulers — pushing them to dump the debris for free on vacant lots, curbs, street corners, and sidewalks.
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