By Sophia Battaglia
In order to further comprehend the effects trash has on the residents of Philadelphia, I sat with Tonya Sears, a woman living in Nicetown North Philly, and asked her about her experience with waste management in her neighborhood. She explains what she’s had to deal with surrounding the topic and how it makes her feel. This is a Philadelphian issue, but certain neighborhoods such as Nicetown have higher rates of trash and litter. To fully comprehend the scope of the problem it is significant to listen to those affected by it.
Okay, so my first question is, can you describe the waste management and trash problems that you’re experiencing?
So, I live at the intersection of 19th in Cayuga, and directly in front of my house there is an empty lot. They do come and cut the grass from time to time, but it’s a dumping site. On Cayuga Street, there’s a large park, it’s right by Germantown and Cayuga, and it’s a triangular section, and it’s a dump site, constant crash, all the time. And so, on the corner lot I own, because there’s so much trash being blown, it’s up against my fence, so I’m constantly cleaning, constantly cleaning, constantly cleaning. And I don’t have a problem with cleaning, but when you see adults that throw trash out their car and on the ground, like I had to say to my neighbor one day I’m out there cleaning, and it was street cleaning day, so I try to clean up and anything extra pushed in the street so that the street cleaning crews can pick it up. And I had to say to my neighbor did you throw that on the ground, but he went back and picked it up after I said something and that was several days later because I refused to pick it up until I said something to him. So now I have to say things to people and it’s not safe, but you know, I figured I’m not going to allow people to be dumping trash and doing things where I live.
The trashmen come every week, they come early in the morning and pick up the trash. They’re even sometimes kind enough if I ask them to pick up, you know, extra that’s on the other side of the street or I’ll pull some things in front of my house so that they’ll get them. They are very, very supportive. But it’s pretty bad. And now they’re talking about those new trash cans. I didn’t sign up for that. I don’t like that stuff because who’s going to be responsible for dumping them? Who’s going to be responsible for calling when they get full? Like monitoring and I don’t know enough about the program to sign up for it.
That’s fair. So, how long have you been dealing with this issue, and do you think it has gotten worse over time or better?
Um, well, I’m, I’ve only had to deal with it since 1997. I think it’s gotten worse because a lot of the older homeowners have passed on, and so I think it’s gotten worse.
Do you think that this disproportionately affects certain communities and groups within the city?
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I think that in North Philadelphia, I think it is definitely affects the areas a lot of the areas in North Philadelphia where there are college students and they really don’t have a stake in the community because they don’t live there and they’re young children and they’re just there to get an education and party. And so, so they don’t really have a stake in the neighborhood. And it’s, it’s disgusting.
So has this issue led to other problems in the neighborhood, such as like pest infestations or like safety concerns?
Oh, really, really bad. We have raccoons. We have cats. We have squirrels. One of the things that I laugh about, but it’s not really funny., and I tell my girls is the squirrels eat chicken. It’s not just the trash, it’s also that they’re tearing down a lot of homes and digging and rebuilding and these animals have no place to go, so they’re forced into the neighborhoods. These lower socioeconomic neighborhoods have a bunch of abandoned homes. And so these rodents take up residency in these abandoned homes.
So, this is the last question, but if you want to like elaborate on anything else you totally can. What impact has waste management, has the problem of waste management in the city had on your daily life?
Well, several ways. One, I have a small in-home daycare, and I have to spend extra money on containing my trash. I have to spend money on using commercial police to pull on my trash so that they don’t tear it up. I have bricks that I set on top of my trash can to try to prevent the raccoons from lifting the trash. I see it when I usually feed my dog in my yard. I have to make sure I remove everything. Again, I have to clean up everything because there have been times when I’ve seen raccoons in the morning. Raccoons are nocturnal, so they should not be out in the open. So, I have to make sure that there’s nothing around for them. Yeah. But that still affects me because they’re still looking even though there’s nothing around. I must, or I’m concerned about them getting into my home, you know, making sure trees are cut down so that, because we have, well, I’ve seen two recently in this tree that is maybe three doors down. Yeah. So my concern is, are they going to climb the roofs, and find a way to get into my roof? And once they get into your home, then you must pay all this money to get them out.
Well, thank you so much. Do you have anything that you’d like to add?
I do believe that the city is trying, but they can only do so much if the citizens are not doing their part.
Well we can always try, that’s all we can do
Right, that’s all we can do.
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