How effective is it to report illegal dumping in Philadelphia?
Mystery Shopper: Reporting Illegal Dumping in Philadelphia
Our mystery shopper tried to get just ane of the dozens of ugly trash heaps cleared away from their N Philly neighborhood. Hither'south how well—or non—it went.
Aug. 09, 2021
Walking the streets of North Philadelphia, information technology's all too common to run into—and I hateful literally run into—oversized trash. From dirty mattresses to old sofas, cleaved tables and more than, illegal dumping is everywhere in one case you open your eyes to it.
In the span of just three days, this mystery shopper noticed:
- Mean solar day ane: Back alleyway: dilapidated backyard chairs, hundreds of crushed beer cans, smashed speaker; manifestly the detritus of some type of "totally tubular" frat party. Gross, dude.
- Day 2: The sidewalk: contrasted men's wear, a broken gaming system, old toothbrush, toothpaste, and hair intendance products. Remnants of a bitter breakup?
- Twenty-four hours 3: A vacant lot: broken concrete, mounds of black trash bags, dozens of plastic bags, scattered pieces of cleaved article of furniture. Who knows?
- Day four: I said "enough" and set up out to find a way to rid my beautiful urban center of the nasty garbage.
Illegal dumping might exist the reason Philadelphia is consistently ranked ane of the dirtiest cities in America. We all come across it, but what tin residents do to clean upwardly our sidewalks? How hard is it to get illegal dumping removed? It might exist simpler than you think…
Steps nosotros took to study illegal dumping in Philadelphia
- I spied a big pile of trash dumped most my street, and gear up out to determine: Is it legal or illegal dumping? I Googled "illegal trash dumping in Philly."
- The first search results was "Study Illegal Dumping" on phila.gov. It said: "It is illegal to dump garbage in public spaces or on individual belongings." Said trash pile is smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, so that would be a yes.
- Nether the tab that says "How," it says to "call 911 if I run into it in activeness," or I can fill out the course below.
- I click on the class and fill out the location, a clarification of the individual(s), the make, model, color, and license plate of any vehicles, and the material being dumped. (I only have the location and the material that was dumped, so I am not sure how accurate the study will be.)
- Next, I can either login or sign up on the Philly311 folio to fill out another grade.
- The beginning matter I must exercise on this form is fill out the address where the dumping is, so I put the address of the house that the illegal dumping is closest to.
- Next, I answer a series of questions, including:
– "Is the trash on a vacant lot?"
– "Is there commercial hazardous waste?"
– "Does it include hazardous household waste product?"
– "Is the trash in the bike lane, street or the sidewalk?"
– "Is there active structure on the site?"
– "What are the conditions of the material?"
– "Big Crew & Heavy Mechanism To Clean Up?"
– "What is the blazon of fabric?"
– "Description of Vehicle/Person Involved if known"
– "Your Name & Contact Number"
– "Description: Anything else we should know virtually the event" (I can choose between making the request public or private) - Finally, I tin add together a picture show, and then click "Submit."
- I tin runway the progress of my report by clicking " Track a Service Request with 311" or by downloading and logging into the Philly 311 app.
- Now I wait… and wait… and await…
Fourth dimension spent: 10 minutes to navigate the website and fill out two forms; four weeks waiting for the request to be "completed".
Result: Once my request status was inverse to "completed," I felt reassured this drawn-out process was all worth it…until I walked past the illegal dumping site and noticed a bulk of the trash however in its original place. Um…
Takeaways: While Philly 311 has the potential to get an easy and reliable solution to get rid of illegal dumping, in this case at least it did non work as promised. Weeks of walking past the site with no action, followed by an incomplete clean-up? This is non good urban center service past whatsoever means; it is more than or less a complete failure.
Lightning commodities rating: 0
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/illegal-dump-site-philly/