Recycle

Yay for Philly! Rather than letting leaves collect in drains and litter our streets, Philly is having a 6-week Philly Bagged Leaf Drive to collect & compost them to fertilize gardens & nourish trees. From November 8-December 17, you can set out leaves on trash day to help Philadelphia's foliage - saving time & labor costs. How can you participate? Here are the Collection Guidelines:

Office paper represents roughly 50% of the waste bill from the average business - US offices print about 12.1 trillion sheets of paper annually, contributing about 9% of carbon dioxide emissions. Here are 5 tips to reduce paper waste:

It's fall! What a better time to re-check your junk mail and minimize where you can. With iPhones, Blackberries, Facebook & the internet everywhere, it's too easy to find people or businesses, and shop online. Do you really need phone books, credit card offers and glossy printed catalogs dropped off at your front door? Save the 1000's of pages used for each dinosaur-era book:

One of the most popular questions we are asked is "Can I recycle this?" Now that we've gone over what you can recycle for curbside efforts in Philadelphia - plastics and beyond - here's a list of what you can't recycle:

Good news for Philadelphia! You no longer have to worry about asking me what you can & can't recycle checking those pesky numbers on your plastics containers - they're ALL recyclable (which just started August 1st). Here's what you can recycle:

Crazy Brits - How England Entices to Recycle: Could it work for Philly?

Let's break it down by the numbers...The average American: Generates an average of 4.6 pounds of trash per day 2.5 lbs of that trash goes to landfills Only 2.1 lbs of trash is recycled or incinerated How much are you recycling, Philly? What can you recycle that you aren't currently? What are you having problems recycling? After the jump, let us know in the comments.

Philly's 3rd Annual Spring Cleanup had its biggest cleanup ever thanks to greenies like you with its UnLitter Us Campaign! Over 11,000 volunteers worked at 231 official project sites to collect over 1.3 million lbs of trash, 140K lbs of recycling, 50 parks & recreation centers cleaned and 763 neighborhood blocks cleaned! Incredible numbers, Philly! But how can you keep it up for this Earth week (and always...) Here's some suggestions:

Yesterday the Philadelphia Streets Department announced the launch of UnLitter Us- a sustained initiative and movement to rid Philadelphia of litter and create clean, beautiful and safe blocks. “With UnLitter Us, we are addressing the problem of litter head-on,” said Streets Commissioner Clarena I.W. Tolson. “Through the use of spoken word artists and comprehensive community programs, we aim to inspire pride and action in all Philadelphians to join the movement for a litter free city.” The spoken word artists perform original poems that express their frustration with litter and their dream of seeing it stopped. Their words are featured in UnLitter Us messages on TV, radio, web and public transit that debuted across the city March 29th. The Philadelphia Streets Department will work closely with community leaders to bring UnLitter Us to the ground level, showing Philadelphia residents how they can help tackle the city’s litter problem Planned programs include: