Commercial Recycling Advocacy in Philadelphia
Clean Air Council and the Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia are focused on bringing commercial buildings and apartments into compliance and enforcing
the commercial recycling regulations. The City of Philadelphia’s commercial recycling regulations require that all commercial buildings in all parts of the City recycle– this includes businesses, apartment buildings of more than six units, and schools.
Commercial buildings are required to prepare and submit a recycling plan, provide recycling and containers for employees and/or tenants, and use a hauler or recycling company that is licensed by the City of Philadelphia. For all recyclables, commercial buildings must provide for separation of these items from regular trash up-front. If a hauler or a building manager/owner says that you can combine recyclables with trash, and that they will be separated off-site, they are not being recycled! The Council encourages tenants and employees to advocate for recycling in their workplace or apartment. If you are interested in becoming a recycling advocate for your apartment building or workplace dowload the commercial recycling advocates toolkit.
To help you get started, Clean Air Council and RecycleNOW, with generous support from the William Penn Foundation, has developed a Recycling Advocates Toolkit for your use. You can download all of the materials you need to get started right here. Below are the materials with a description of each one.
Recycling Advocate's Toolkit:Handbook for becoming an advocate in your building. (PDF)
Eight Steps to Becoming an Effective Recycling Advocate:Quick guide to starting out. (PDF)
Advocate Pledge Card:Pledge your support to the campaign. (PDF)
RecycleNOW Petition: Get support from other tenants in your building. (PDF)
Petition Postcard: To leave behind for tenants that you can't contact dirctly. (PDF)
Apartment and Condominium Background Survey: To help you gather information to better understand the facility. (PDF)
Office/Workplace Background Survey: To help you gather information to better understand the facility. (PDF)
