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Mayor Nutter's "Keep Philly Clean" program is a noble attempt to plug Philadelphia's gaping budget deficit, but it doesn't fit the bill of a City striving to become the "Greenest City in America" - a title Philadelphia's Sustainability Office is eager to earn.  As Nutter outlined in a public address yesterday, Philadelphia seeks to fix the budget deficit by charging residents a weekly $5.77 trash fee and offering discounts at area stores to residents who recycle.

Philadelphia disposes of 700,000 tons of waste each year and has historically had one of the lowest recycling rates of any major city. The heaps of trash left curbside translate into $65/ton tipping fees and a mounting deficit. It is no wonder the administration is determined to improve recycling rates.  It's also heartening to hear that Nutter may be flexible on the structure of the trash fee he has proposed.

A flat trash and recycling fee of $300/yr (with a slight break granted to low-income residents) is structurally flawed. Because trash disposal is far more costly to the city than recycling, the two curbside services should not be priced equally. While Philadelphia pays to landfill and incinerate its trash, it can earn money by re-selling used glass, paper, and plastic. Instead of charging residents $5.77/week to put their waste at the curb, Philadelphia should follow the lead of more than 6,000 municipalities and institute a "Pay As You Throw" (PAYT) program. A PAYT program would better incentivize trash reduction as it charges residents per unit of trash produced.

A PAYT program is also preferable to the "Recycling Rewards" program Nutter unveiled in December.  The "Recycling Rewards" program provides convenient discounts to residents, but it may cause money to leave Philadelphia’s economy quickly. Nearly all of the Recycling Rewards discounts offer savings at franchises, instead of a diversity of locally-owned businesses. After all we've learned about food miles and outsourcing jobs and resources, we should be more intent about keeping rewards money within the Philadelphia economy.