Philthy Philly: The Sanitation Worker Strike
Philly is rotting in the summer heat and it stinks like an earring back right now.
As of July, garbage collection has been suspended due to the ongoing sanitation worker strikes. Rather than taking their trash to the sparsely spread disposal sites in the city, many Philadelphians have resorted to just dumping their trash on the pavement, probably hoping collection services will start again soon. People are taking advantage of the dump sites to get rid of stuff like industrial waste/construction materials, and trash fires are popping up. As a consequence, conditions in the city are literally fetid. The people are puking lmao.
The Parker admin has had zero meaningful contingency planning and is comically slow in their attempts to seek resolution. In response to the trash strikes, the city has established a handful of municipal “drop-off” sites.
Unfortunately these are sparse and located outside of the neighborhoods they’re meant to serve. This city-provided map is cluttered and poorly labeled. There is no accurate indicator of ZIP code or neighborhood boundaries. There is no mention of public transit connections to facilitate access. There is no sizing indicator to demonstrate the volume of people each site intends to serve. The collection day boundaries seem arbitrarily drawn, lumping together distinct sections of the city by proximity (?). And they aren’t correlated to available drop off points - e.g. if a Monday drop off is missed or skipped there is no clear direction to an alternative drop off site. You miss a day because you work a 9-5, don’t have a car, and the nearest drop off site is a 50 min walk? Fuck you, figure it out I guess.
This map is practically useless to residents who don’t know sanitation district boundaries or can’t decode the grid (keep in mind: this city’s functional illiteracy rate is like, 52% btw.) There are massive assumptions being made about resident geographic familiarity, mobility, and visual literacy. It is a gross failure in public equity and accessibility.
There is blatant inequality in the drop off sites’ geographic distribution. The more affluent and central areas have multiple drop off sites. South Philly (along Broad St), Center City, and University City’s drop off sites are within walking or short driving distance from each other. There is severe underservice in other densely populated but less central or outright low income neighborhoods. For example, the entirety of Poplar, Fishtown, Northern Liberties, and Port Richmond share 1 disposal site. It is absurd that this is the only shared option for a massive residential corridor. North Philadelphia is similarly grotesquely underserved relative to its population density. Only 3 temporary drop off sites specifically serve this area, and public transit in North Philly is spotty at best (and will get worse in August after SEPTA cuts).
Most of the sites are located in public parks or hard to reach industrial zones like the drop off on Calera & Red Lion Rd or Byberry & Kelvin (which is literally at an elementary school). These placements clearly bias car owners and further reinforce this city’s growing car dependence. It effectively excludes low income residents from access, and totally forgets the disabled or elderly. The city truly expects the public to make up for their inequity:
On Monday, June 30, city leaders called for residents to be "good neighbors’" ahead of the strike.
Southwest Philly (Eastwick/Elmwood) has only one real drop-off site (Dickens 1 - a floodplain) that’s in the far southwest corner. The Eastwick community in particular has already long been vulnerable to flooding and environmental harms.
The decision to put these drop off points at these locations is shockingly short-sighted. The placement in open areas is a massive environmental concern. Temporary dumpsters are exposed to the elements and are not serviced regularly. As mentioned, one center alone services thousands of residents (e.g. sections of Port Richmond, Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Poplar lumped together). They are overburdened with a high volume of users.
Rainfall intensifies the environmental harm. Philly is under an active flood watch right now, with rainfall expected to be consistent across the next week and a half. Soaking wet, underserviced trash sites are not only fucking disgusting as an olfactory and visual blight, but are an actual public health risk. The Parker admin hasn’t meaningfully addressed potential non-labor related impacts of this strike -- no mention of leachate seeping into the soil and into local waterways (yum, garbage filtered water!), the worsening of city vermin infestations, and the airborne contaminants of rotting waste. Keep in mind, it’s not just food waste or paper trash being tossed. There are biohazard materials being disposed of: fecal matter-laden diapers, used needles, sanitary napkins and tampons, dog shit, etc.
The forecasted severe rainfall puts the city at massive stormwater contamination risk. Philadelphia’s combined sewer system (CSS), which handles both sewage and stormwater in most neighborhoods, means overflow events risk sending both sewage and rotting garbage directly into local creeks, rivers (Schuylkill/Delaware) and groundwater reservoirs. Layman’s terms: with CSS, one pipe carries both sewage and stormwater. When it rains a lot, that system gets overwhelmed and is forced to release raw sewage and other contaminants into the waterways. These management systems were built for a different era: one with no climate change, less population density, and no industrial-scale water usage. Rain, poop, dishwater? Same pipe.
Water filtration plants cannot keep up. A big, week long flood watch? Yeah, you can expect trace amounts of fecal matter in your water. (Water with a hint of E. Coli, Hepatitis A, Cholera, etc.) You can expect dying aquatic life. You can expect permanent contamination at overflow sites like Cobbs Creek (Eastwick).
Philadelphia has had a long (and shameful) history of environmental negligence in marginalized communities like Eastwick. That neighborhood is frequently flooded and wholly reliant on third-party nonprofit aid to implement green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to mitigate climate-based harms. Philadelphia city governance regularly abdicates its publicly funded responsibilities to civic goodwill and local NGOs.
There is minimal public outreach from the city or the reacting activists that clearly spotlights the environmental and public health consequences of the strike. This isn’t a dig at the activist community, many of whom are doing critical labor organizing right now. The scale of crisis is just that overwhelming. I’ve seen social media posts suggesting trash drop off at City Hall in protest. I’m empathetic to the frustration, and as a symbolic gesture it seems theatrically powerful. But in what world is dirtying Dilworth Park good anti-scabbing advocacy? I hope people are not actually doing this.
Regardless, the messaging is functionally problematic. Residents may not understand:
Floodwater mixed with decomposing garbage contaminants can carry harmful pathogens and toxins.
Garbage run-off can compromise public spaces, like playgrounds and parks.
Prolonged exposure can lead to mold, pathogen spread, rodent/insect infestations, and other long term health risks.
There has been minimal public guidance on how to safely store trash in the interim, whether these drop off sites are regularly cleared, or how residents can report overflowing or hazardous drop off sites.
The city is absolutely failing at both harm mitigation and public communication. I can’t tell whether its through clumsy ineptitude or literal apathy. It’s not just a labor or logistics issue - this is a public health and climate resilience failure. It’s plague producing conditions. I’m not being alarmist, I’m considering contingency.
The lack of public advocacy around the risks of groundwater pollution, runoff toxicity, and public exposure is leaving thousands of Philadelphians vulnerable.
My wants as a resident?
Transparent communication from the Mayor’s office and the Streets department on strike resolution and garbage clearance timelines.
Emergency pick ups or safe storage options for high-risk, and overburdened zip codes.
Educational campaigns on how to effectively store garbage (no more rotting crap on the street!), how to reduce pests, minimize smell, and mitigate runoff.
Investment in decentralized and neighborhood based waste disposal infrastructure. Something that doesn’t rely on people bringing their trash bags on public transit.
Better climate contingency planning for future labor disruptions.
Further governmental support for climate-vulnerable communities. (e.g. publicly funded GSI projects)