philly spends the eceonomic stimilus money on big boy solar garbage cans......

[busted]

really, who the hell got stimulated by these things? according to the press release, the city of philadelphia is going to save 13 mil over 10 years. i'd love to see how they figured that one out. here's the link
City gets $14.1 million energy grant

oh wait, cause it only has to be emptied twice per week instead of five times. gimme a break. i took these photos today, imagine what it's gonna be like in the summer? i dont think this was well thought out, we need more regular trash cans and more pickups.
1st pic is bainbridge & 3rd, 2nd pic is bainbridge & 4th, and last one is south & 3rd

[cerberus413]

This is F-ing hilarious...

[phillycat]

Actually, they've been in place in many parts of the city since LAST SPRING. All through last summer. Worked fine.

You don't seem to understand how grants work. They are free money for municipalities that take advantage of them. This saves the city money in several ways: they get the brand new nifty containers for free, and they have to deploy many fewer crews to empty them because they need to be emptied less frequently, thus saving on streets department employee costs. If you ever saw the old containers, they were always overflowing with garbage after just a day. These also separate garbage from recycling which saves money because recycling is cheaper for the city to dispose of than trash.

If you see garbage next to them, call 3-1-1 and they'll have it picked up. In that area it is possible you are seeing residential curbside recycling that gets put out at night once a week to be picked up by the trucks, but if it isn't garbage night you should call 3-1-1. Thanks for caring!

[dr_gingivitis]

Right, the regular style trash can would have fit the kiddy pool and multiple bags of household trash.

The problem's not with the trash can or frequency of collection, it's with disgusting people who think it's ok to pile their **** in pubic space.

[nanyika]

Photo number 2, at least, seems to be fairly "normal" trash set out for collection. The garbage has been carefully bagged, and the recycle stuff is in a cardboard box and a white plastic container that seems to have "recycle" scrawled on the side. Not too bad; I wouldn't worry about it. Better to put the trash out for collection that way than to stuff it into the city trash container.

Photos one & three, on the other hand, are pretty gross. But since it was trash-collection day, the city workers probably swept it up.

[palvar]

Pffft...I've fit kiddie pools in those new garbage cans. Whoever just left theirs on the ground there just wasn't trying hard enough.

[desolate]

better question.

WHere the heck would you have been using that pool originally?

[Viburnum]

You don't seem to understand how grants work. They are free money for municipalities that take advantage of them.

"Free money"???
Do tell how that works, because the article says it came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka "Porkulus").
It's not free, it comes from my pocket, or, in this case, since it'll be decades before we can pay it off, my kids' pockets.

In what I'm sure is just an incredible coincidence, the President and CEO of Seahorse Power Company, Jim Poss' wife, Ellen has given over $300,000 to democrat campaigns since 2000
Ellen Poss - $87,468 in Political Contributions for 2008

See how it works folks? One hand washes the other, quid pro quo, pay to play.

[scottpeezy]

Since when did public garbage cans become "private" garbage cans? Most of the junk sitting next to the cans in question appear to be from homes and private citizens.

I don't think the trashcans are the problem, it sounds like the people living around the trashcans might be the issue. Maybe you should hold a neighborhood meeting discussing how folks dispose of their trash.

[PhillyKev]

Photo number 2, at least, seems to be fairly "normal" trash set out for collection. The garbage has been carefully bagged, and the recycle stuff is in a cardboard box and a white plastic container that seems to have "recycle" scrawled on the side. Not too bad; I wouldn't worry about it. Better to put the trash out for collection that way than to stuff it into the city trash container.

Photos one & three, on the other hand, are pretty gross. But since it was trash-collection day, the city workers probably swept it up.

Yeah, it appears to me that this was just trash put out on the curb for pickup that happened to be next to these cans.

[OutOfContext]

Since when did public garbage cans become "private" garbage cans? Most of the junk sitting next to the cans in question appear to be from homes and private citizens.

I don't think the trashcans are the problem, it sounds like the people living around the trashcans might be the issue. Maybe you should hold a neighborhood meeting discussing how folks dispose of their trash.

Just blame renters, it's a solve it all solution.

[phillycat]

by "free money" we mean "money that some other entity has earmarked for a specific purpose.

you might think the grants are a waste of government money (goverment grants...from the people who brought you the internet! what a waste of taxpayer dollars that boondoggle was), but it isn't money the city spent. it was money that was out there and the city made a compelling argument that they would make good use of it, saving money and energy and providing a service to its citizens.

somebody was going to use it. good for the city for jumping on it.

[seand]

Look we were given Federal money to buy infrastructure that helps make Philadelphia greener and make the city energy efficient over the long haul. We did not have widely distributed recycling cans around the city before.

Every ton we recycle save the city money because it costs so much money to but landfill space for the trash we don't recycle. Regular trashcans fill up more frequently and have to be emptied by unionized city employees with health benefits and pensions to pay. The solarized compactor reduces the number times the cans have to be emptied saving a lot of labor costs. Less Dept of Streets employees on the clock because they can hit the cans less frequently.

No matter how you cut it the solar compactor cans are an economic win for saving the city operating costs over the long haul. Nutter's job as mayor is to get the most out of the budget he has and the solar compactor cans do that very well.

If you don't think helping the city save money and recycle more was a good use of Federal dollars, your beef is with the Feds not with the Mayor. Nutter used the money for something that will save the city a lot of money over the long haul while making the city easier to keep clean.

[busted]

by "free money" we mean "money that some other entity has earmarked for a specific purpose.

you might think the grants are a waste of government money (goverment grants...from the people who brought you the internet! what a waste of taxpayer dollars that boondoggle was), but it isn't money the city spent. it was money that was out there and the city made a compelling argument that they would make good use of it, saving money and energy and providing a service to its citizens.

somebody was going to use it. good for the city for jumping on it.

are you saying that govt's don't waste money? cause, unfortunately, that would be funny.

this is the only city that ive ever lived in that picks up garbage only once per week. that is why residents (renters and home owners) use the public bins for residential trash. there aren't enough bins for any kind of trash period. these two reasons are the primary factors behind the problem.

it was interesting reading viburnum's post, the donor's connections are obvious. i know that stuff happens all the time, but i never find it less outrageous. in all seriousness, that "stimulus" bill was sold to the taxpayers with the notion that it was going to create jobs not for this waste of "free money" spending.

[Hospitalitygirl]

Thanks everyone; I think the reasons for this are now quite clear; changing some habits, on the other hand, may prove far more challenging.

[raider.adam]

you might think the grants are a waste of government money (goverment grants...from the people who brought you the internet! what a waste of taxpayer dollars that boondoggle was),

So can you use the Internet as a support for military spending?

[busted]

If you don't think helping the city save money and recycle more was a good use of Federal dollars, your beef is with the Feds not with the Mayor. Nutter used the money for something that will save the city a lot of money over the long haul while making the city easier to keep clean.

listen, i'm all for recycling and whatnot. my position is that due to once per week pickups and lack of the sufficient amount of trash cans, we still have the same problem. I have shown you physical evidence (the three pics in the initial post) that these things DO NOT make our city easier to clean! MORE regular 'ol trash cans would have done the trick!

[seand]

listen, i'm all for recycling and whatnot. my position is that due to once per week pickups and lack of the sufficient amount of trash cans, we still have the same problem. I have shown you physical evidence (the three pics in the initial post) that these things DO NOT make our city easier to clean! MORE regular 'ol trash cans would have done the trick!

Translation: you want to hire more city workers with pension funds and health insurance but don't want to pay more city taxes to pay for it.

People who illegally dump big trash are breaking the law and they would break it with regular cans, just the same. The new cans still stop the cans from overflowing with the regular small trash they are designed for better than regular cans do.

[Hospitalitygirl]

listen, i'm all for recycling and whatnot. my position is that due to once per week pickups and lack of the sufficient amount of trash cans, we still have the same problem. I have shown you physical evidence (the three pics in the initial post) that these things DO NOT make our city easier to clean! MORE regular 'ol trash cans would have done the trick!

I don't know. I attribute much of that to sheer laziness. I am perfectly capable of keeping my trash for at least a week, and more if necessary, as well as my recycling. I have a large enough trash can to hold it all in; store my papers in a bag and place bottles and cans in the bin. Most people, but the looks of those pictures, and what I have witnessed, just don't want to be bothered. I have witnessed neighbors from my own block, as they were headed out, take an empty pizza box with them and discard it at the corner can meant for refuse from people walking along South Street so that they don't just toss as they go along (ha!) They are longtime residents and owners, not even tenants, and I know they have a little area to store a trash can, but they just chose to take the empty box to the corner. Another time, I saw my then new neighbor (who was a tenant) take a bag or two to the corner can, and when I saw I had to mention to him that it was not a good idea--if spotted or caught he could get a ticket for his efforts. I told him when trash day was, what happened with holidays, and he thanked me. I later saw a trash can come out on trash night. So he learned, and took his trash out in a more appropriate way. The other neighbors were just being lazy. As are so many others. It's really not that hard to hold on to trash in a can, for a week. And it really isn't hard to put trash out so that it doesn't look like a five-year old did it, either. Try smashing down your plastics so that they're less like to blow around in the wind, rendering the streets full of tumbling tumbleweeds of trash. Whee.

[Viburnum]

If you don't think helping the city save money and recycle more was a good use of Federal dollars, your beef is with the Feds not with the Mayor.

I completely agree. My issues are with the entire Porkulus bill and the greasing of those who've bought political connections.