South Philly Review

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Aluminum cans, cigarette butts and plastic wrappers bear little physical weight, but improper disposal of them and other items holds heavy ecological severity.

To beautify their neighborhoods and to stress environmental concern, six community groups will hold a cleanup and an electronics collection event Oct. 15 to help to launch South Philly’s participation in the Streets Department’s 19-month-old UnLitter Us initiative.

Travel + Leisure’s June issue tagged Philadelphia as the nation’s second dirtiest city, a title that trips throughout South Philly might help to justify, so the groups want to rally residents to treat trash as waste and not as street décor. South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., will serve as the hub for five of the associations 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with the parking lot at ACME, 1400 E. Passyunk Ave., hosting the Passyunk Square Civic Association’s Electronic Collection Event by collecting “anything with a plug” noon to 4 p.m.

A complement to the Philly Spring Cleanup, UnLitter Us aims for commitments to correcting apathetic views of debris’ effect on neighborhoods’ aesthetic, economic and familial identities. Next weekend’s outreach will work as an impetus for increasing the area’s number of designated Litter Free Blocks and for naming numerous sections Litter-Free Zones.

“I hope our efforts help other parts of our city to see that it is possible to make a difference and also to partner with local civics in order to do so,” Kim Massare, of Ninth and Wolf streets, said.

The president of The Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, which oversees Eighth to Broad streets from Oregon to Snyder avenues, made overtures to the other groups to staunch litter. Her four-year-old entity participated in a focus group with Keep Philadelphia Beautiful — the research partner responsible for the UnLitter Us messaging campaign — which has relied on spoken word artists, who will deliver poetic advertisements at the event. Because other local bodies had already been engaged in beautification projects, Massare received favorable responses.

UnLitter Us encourages prospective Litter Free Zones to select institutions as Litter Free School Zones, so Massare approached Southern, which rests within walking distance of the other participants’ boundaries, about being the day’s centerpiece spot.

Reasons people litter include failure to claim ownership of the waste, beliefs that City workers will remove messes and already accumulated refuse, according to Keep Philadelphia Beautiful’s website. Rick Gabe, the former trash and recycling chair for the five-year-old Newbold Civic Association, which helps residents from Broad to 18th streets along Wolf to Tasker streets, concurs with the final motive.

“Most of the newer people in the community are those most driven to rid our neighborhood of trash,” the resident of Chadwick and Wolf streets said. “Most long-time residents are conditioned to dirty streets and don’t care.”

Refusal to accept ignorance of the trash’s significance led the the four-year-old Newbold Neighbors Association and its Clean and Green Committee’s cleaning chair Cara Ketchum to join the movement.

“I think the biggest concern is the lack of education on the harm litter is doing in this city,” the resident of the 1900 block of South Bouvier Street said. “It is not just that litter is an eyesore; it clogs storm drains, attracts pests and pollutes waterways.”

She added that children need instruction to bolster their streets’ cleanliness, so schools should design projects around civic engagement. Though the City distributed 3,750 recycling bins during the April 2 cleanup and is adding more BigBelly solar waste units, Ketchum decried a lack of receptacles for proper discarding.

“Many older residents are out every day cleaning what they can to help,” she said of the elders within the stretch from Broad to 18th streets along Washington to West Passyunk avenues, “but the problem has gotten overwhelming for the few residents that are helping to keep up with it.”

The organizers for the main event have not finalized its schedule, but Massare expects remarks from the associations’ leaders and revealed a recognition ceremony will honor residents and businesses that have pledged to maintain a Litter Free Zone. Earning and retaining that distinction involves a number of steps, including participating in at least two cleanups, placing UnLitter Us decals in prominent locations and securing the commitment of at least one anchor business or three independent businesses along a commercial corridor to join the Business Ambassador Program.

Lower Moyamensing, with signs advising residents and passers-by to “Please Respect This Litter Free Zone” has secured the South Philly Review as an ambassador. Designation means this publication will host a garbage can, display an UnLitter Us poster, commit to a daily cleanup of its property and encourage employees to wear a button to direct people to www.philadelphiastreets.com.

The South Broad Street Neighborhood Association, serving 13th to 15th streets from Washington through Oregon avenues, and the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association & Town Watch, whose personnel assists Eighth to Broad streets from Tasker Street to Snyder Avenue, also will partake in the launch. Streets and beautification chair Gregory Damis will lead the first, while East Passyunk Crossing’s beautification chair Scott Collings will represent the second.

“Our goal since inception was to educate people about the importance of a clean neighborhood,” Collings, of the 1600 block of South 12th Street, said of his five-year-old association.

He admires the UnLitter Us campaign’s cohesive quality, which hopes to breed even tighter relationships among South Philly’s civics and rid thoroughfares of filth.