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My name is Jessica Ullman and I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I now study sustainable energy management at Unity College in Unity, Maine. Growing up in a huge city I always saw trash on the streets. My father would frequently pick up the trash that was on our block which taught me a great life lesson which is to protect the Earth. He is not with me today and so I want to honor his memory and bring sustainability methods to my hometown. When I came to Maine I realized how much cleaner it is. When I went to the cafeteria I saw that they have a composting center. I have never seen one before and I thought it was like the most amazing thing in the world. The school also recycles a huge amount. Back home growing up I loved how my family has always recycled. There is so much that needs to be done in the city of Philadelphia about the lack of their recycling and composting laws. Recycling and composting should be enforced and there are numerous ways in how this can be done. Recycling and composting is so important for climate change and so it is necessary for all Philadelphians to be informed and take proper actions.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

3 Ways to Get Philadelphia To Recycle/Compost

In Philadelphia we basically just have Recyclebank and a recycling trash that collects it. Like one of my previous posts explained, Recyclebank basically give you money for recycling. They give you coupons for local businesses. This can help the economy in the area. For composting there is basically nothing to help people do it. These are so many ideas from other cities around the U.S. that I think Philly should be doing.
1. RFID Bins: RFID computer chip bins are attached to recycling cans in the cities of Charlotte, North Carolina and Cleveland, Ohio. In Charlotte they have increased their recycling by 20 percent. They have 15 state landfill laws. On their bins they use RFID chips to track which parts of the city are recycling the most for data purposes. In Cleveland they are using the chips to see whether or not people do curbside recycling. If the chip detects they have not been recycling, an alert goes off and the homeowner receives a $100 dollar fine.
2. San Francisco: They have made illegal to not recycle or compost, or they will get a $500 fine. It has worked. They now have 500 tons of compost a day.
3. Terracycle in Cherry Hill, NJ: This is a company that provides free recycling programs funded by companies and brands. It has now spread to different cities. Some programs are municipal like helping with cigarette waste and others help with industrial waste. You basically call the company and they give you the supplies to help you recycle your waste. Terracycle even make cool items with that recyclables that you can later buy like this:


RFID bins would be great in Philly because many people do not recycle and so if they are fined for not, it would make people do it. A con of this would be we first have to make laws that make it illegal to not recycle. There are also people already in debt, and do not have the money to pay that fine. In San Francisco them imposing laws made the people care more about the environment and so the city can be sustainable in other ways. If Philly had laws and fines if the laws were broken Philadelphia would recycle and compost more. Terracycle is also a program we should try to enforce because basically they do all the hard work, you just have to call them. There should be more advertsing about them, so that people could see how easy it is.
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