Philadelphia Mayor Kicks off Citywide Single Stream Program

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has officially unveiled a citywide single-stream recycling program, which, the Mayor claims, makes the city the largest city on the East Coast to move to citywide, single stream recycling. The city kicked off the program with what the city is calling BINdependence Day.

"Single stream recycling has proven so effective in increasing the amount of recyclables collected, and we will build upon that success as we expand citywide," said Nutter. "Philadelphia’s growing number of recyclers now have the freedom to use any hard-sided bin for all their recyclables, as long as it has the word RECYCLING on it. The time has come for all Philadelphians to declare their BINdependence."

Since the project began in 2006, recycling is up 35 percent in sections of the city with single stream. A total of 540,000 Philadelphia households are now able to place steel and aluminum cans, glass jars and bottles, newspapers, paper items such as food boxes, catalogs, magazines, and junk mail, cardboard and #1 and #2 plastics in the same container.