Philadelphia moves to single stream

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter announced that Philadelphia is now the largest city on the East Coast of the United States to move to citywide, single stream recycling. All Philadelphia residents are now allowed to put all recyclables into one bin - any bin.

“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 Mayor 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.”

With the program in place city-wide, Philadelphia is now the largest city on the East Coast to have single stream recycling. Since the project began in 2006, recycling is up 35% 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. Residents should check the bottom of plastic containers for the number to see if the item is acceptable. Residents may continue to use their blue recycling bins for curbside collection. Should one bin not be enough to hold all recyclables, residents may add another container and place a sticker on it or mark it “recycling.”