Two updates // illegal dumping testimony and legislation. On May 5, Streets Department Commissioner Carlton Williams testified before city officials in a hearing on illegal dumping. That same day, City Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker introduced legislation pertaining to illegal dumping enforcement. The hearing itself, Commissioner Williams’ testimony, and Parker’s legislation all signal that the city is getting more serious about ending the deluge of garbage on our streets. But there are still some key puzzle pieces missing.
Here are some key highlights from William’s testimony (supplemented by a conversation I had with Kyle Lewis, the city’s Director of Recycling and leader of the Cleaner Public Spaces Enforcement Committee):
At present, the Streets Department has one cleanup crew devoted fulltime to removing illegally dumped trash throughout the city. In the FY2023 budget, the Streets Department has asked for an additional $2 million to add another cleanup crew. Williams hopes the extra crew will enable the department to take a more proactive approach — i.e., to address the areas that are “most objectively impacted,” instead of merely responding to resident/business complaints.
In 2021, with only one cleanup crew, the Streets Department removed over 7,000 tons of illegally dumped trash and over 83,000 tires from over 1,300 sites. The fact that they’re now doubling their cleanup capacity gives you a sense of just how mind-boggling the scale of this problem is.
Much of that waste comes from “known hotspots” throughout the city, many of which get cleaned up and then re-dumped on within a matter of days. Thus, clearly, the real challenge is to prevent illegal dumping from occurring rather than to merely remove trash once it’s dumped. Otherwise, the city is wasting resources by going back to the same locations time after time to pick up after people who treat our neighborhoods like trashcans.
On the enforcement front, the city presently has 188 cameras devoted entirely to illegal dumping surveillance, with 80 more being installed in the next month or so. The Streets Department has three employees whose job is to manually monitor those cameras full-time. There are a few detectives on the Environmental Crimes Unit tasked in part with investigating illegal dumping. And there’s the interdepartmental Cleaner Public Spaces Enforcement Committee that’s tasked with developing better enforcement strategies.
In 2021, all of this enforcement power resulted in 220 cases identified for prosecution, of which thirteen resulted in Code Notice Violations, four led to issued warrants, and one resulted in actual arrest. Remember, that same year, Streets removed 7,000+ tons of trash from 1,300+ sites. That’s 14,000,000 pounds of garbage dumped on our streets.. but only 13 penalties imposed and 1 arrest made.
That said, it’s harder to make arrests than it is to impose fines, because there’s a higher burden of proof for criminal prosecution than for civil. Recognizing this, the Cleaner Public Spaces Enforcement Committee is working to “increase avenues for civil prosecution.”
That brings us to Parker’s legislation, which:
Imposes higher fines for illegal dumping by penalizing each large item dumped, instead of each act of dumping. Previously, a single dump was subject to a maximum fine of $5,000. Now, if that dump unloaded 20 tires onto the street, the fine could be as high as $100,000.
Makes property owners liable for illegally dumped materials hauled away from their property. Which is great, because at least some fraction of the city’s dumping problem comes from junk haulers who take residential/construction waste from properties and then go dump it in poor neighborhoods. This incentivizes property owners to make sure the haulers they’re paying are going to dispose of the waste properly.
So, where does all this leave us? Basically, in the next few years, we can expect to see substantially increased removal capacity. Beyond that, it’s hard to say. We’ll have more surveillance cameras, higher fines on the books, and more avenues for civil prosecution to impose those fines. But we know that last year, even with 188 cameras, three employees monitoring them full-time, a few Environmental Crimes Unit detectives investigating cases, and other departments pitching in… there were only 18 cases of illegal dumping in which any sort of legal action was taken. That’s 18 cases out of 220 assigned for investigation, which is a clearance rate of less than 10 percent. And that’s 220 cases assigned for investigation out of over 1,300 dumpsites addressed, many of which were targeted repeatedly. And those are just the sites that were addressed while operating, apparently, at roughly half the needed removal capacity!
The point is that we clearly need a better system for catching illegal dumpers, either on camera or in the act. We need to be able to extract legally damning information from surveillance footage and subsequent investigations. Making property owners liable should help, because it’s possible that the investigations would lead detectives back to the property the material was taken from rather than to the people who took and dumped it. But I’m skeptical as to how much of a difference that will make, and higher fines don’t mean a damn thing if perpetrators don’t fear getting caught.
At this point I see two main options. Either we find a way to make better use of surveillance footage, like the one I wrote about here, or we find a way to patrol known dumpsites and start catching dumpers in the act, preferably with unarmed officers. Absent a citywide crackdown, the dumping will continue. Increased removal capacity is great, but reducing the need for it is better. Our poorest communities are being flagrantly disrespected, and the city owes it to them to hold the dumpers accountable.
Morgan Berman and Glitter. This one will be quick, because I can’t go public with the details just yet. Suffice it to say that (1) Morgan Berman had a meeting with Councilmember Mark Squilla and Deputy Streets Commissioner of Sanitation Keith Warren, (2) the meeting went pretty well, and (3) it sounds like the Streets Department is open to some sort of collaboration that will help make Glitter’s litter removal services more effective.
Two dumpsites // keep your eye on the ball. Honestly, in spite of all the missing pieces, I’m starting to feel… dare I say… hopeful (?!) about the future of Philly’s trash crisis. If nothing else, city officials are feeling the pressure, and the pressure doesn’t seem to be fading. If we all keep our foot on the gas for another year or two or three, maybe the city will have rolled out some genuinely difference-making policies. But that’s a big “if.” Staying motivated requires us — especially those of us who don’t live in areas where the problem is worst — to continually remind ourselves of just how bad things are. And on that note:
This is the on-the-ground reality in large swaths of the city, especially in North and West Philly. Nobody knows just how many piles like this are currently littering our streets, or how many more will be added to that tally overnight. But it’s a hell of a lot, and that’s an insult to affected communities, and until the city’s system of illegal dumping enforcement progresses by leaps and bounds, this will be our shameful status quo.
Two belated cleanups. I haven’t posted here about a cleanup for a while, but I’ve done two in the last few weeks — one with my friend Calen and one with my friend Aaron, both in South Philly.
Some shots from the one with Calen:
And some shots from the one with Aaron:
And two song recs to close with:
The first, available only on Soundcloud, was produced by ZekeUltra, who I’ve written about before, and is rapped by Elijah Bank$y:
You can check out more of Bank$y’s stuff on Spotify:
The second is by Lisa, who I wrote about a while back when they released a single called Mad Men. Their full debut album, In the August, is out now. My favorite song is “Half Right,” which has a line in it about jumping into the creek I can see from my living room:
And if you’re gonna keep me waiting, and sweating on your leather seat
I’m gonna cut you off cold, and jump into the Wissahickon
And swim away as fast as I can, to the ocean as fast as I can
And if you’re looking for something to do Friday night, Lisa is playing at a venue called The Tabernacle:
Alright y’all, gtg ttyl