Philadelphia gets more sustainable street cred, this time from the Mayors!

The US Conference of Mayors recognized Philadelphia’s public-private partnership with Recyclebank with an Outstanding Achievement Award. Last weekend, the Washington DC ceremony honored the city’s Philadelphia Recycling Rewards program, based on criteria including: improvement in delivery of services, replicability, sustainability, cost-savings, creativity of approach, benefits to both public and private partners, economic and business benefits, and measurable results. 

When Mayor Michael Nutter took office in 2008, our city’s recycling rate was embarrassingly less than 8%. Philadelphia’s recycling rate currently is at 37%, which is just over the national average. (Sidenote: Some people even think we deserve a “B+” for recycling, although I think we need to truck on to that 70% and not pat ourselves on the back too quickly.) 😉 Mayor Nutter’s Greenworks Philadelphia plan’s goal is to divert 70% of solid waste from landfills by 2016, so we are making progress. Our recycling rate has increased 2007’s figure of45,000 tons recycled, compared to 118,500 tons in 2012.

Recycling isn’t only great for our earth – recycling creates about 10 times more jobs per-ton (for things like sorting, material collections, etc) than a trip to the landfill. This results in bonuses to our economy with business expansion and community growth.

Although Mayor Nutter is president of the Mayor group, he didn’t ‘fix’ this award. It’s just showing how awesome his sustainability work is. Keep rocking with the recycling!

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher