When I left class today I was greeted by quite a sight on Broad Street. The City of Philadelphia introduced its freshly painted recycling trucks with a “parade” down Broad Street. It started on our campus at the corner of Broad and Cecil B. Moore and went on down to City Hall. 
The trucks were designed by student’s in the Mural Arts Program with the help of their instructor Desiree Bender. The City wants to bring attention to its single stream recycling program, which collects bottles, cans, cardboard, newspaper, and #1 and #2 plastics from resident’s single recycling bins. When the program started the amount of trash being picked up had a very low rate of recyclables, but now the diversion rate is at 12%. While this is still a considerably low number, its shows progess. Please keep it up, Philadelphia! Each time the diversion rate is increased by 1% the city saves more than $500,000 a year.
Photos by author
