Trash

I'M appalled that we may have to pay to have our trash picked up. People will now dump their trash anywhere they can. Do you really think people in neighborhoods like North Philly are going to pay to have their trash picked up when they don't even pay their utilities, or will they have it picked up for free because they are considered low-income? Would this be fair to people who get up and go to work every day? Deborah Bennett, Philadelphia

AFTER trash/recycling day, our neighborhoods are left with litter and mess all over the place because careless sanitation crews throw bags and cans everywhere. I urge residents to take a digital photo of the individuals and trucks in question and report these violations to csstreets@phila.gov and managing.director@phila.gov. It's time sanitation crews did their jobs properly. Nikola Sizgorich Philadelphia

AS A RESIDENT of this city for 54 years, I am totally disgusted with the filth on our highways, byways and residential streets. There is trash and filth everywhere you look. Where is the civic pride that was once a part of our culture? It is no wonder that it has gone by the wayside, as so many moral issues have. I have seen young children, teenagers and adults discard potato-chip bags, plastic soda bottles, candy wrappers, etc., right on the ground. This happens even when there is a litter basket but a few feet away.

James Gaskins swiftly tosses one swollen garbage sack after another from the curb into a yellow city compactor truck. "Yo, that's it," yells his partner as the two men heft trash-filled boxes along McKean Street in South Philadelphia. Newspapers and food packages, glass and plastic bottles, throw rugs and fragments of furniture - all land in the maw of the Streets Department truck. "This is what we get all day," Gaskins shrugs. The waste from the homes on McKean Street and the rest of the city is buried by the truckload at a Bucks County landfill.

Just a note on trash. Two things would help: Get rid of junk mail and develop a trash bag with a nontoxic substance that repels animals. John Houghton Camden.

The Merchantville Borough Council has approved a $3,800 expenditure to remove trash and debris from a vacant house on Clinton Avenue. The trash is to be removed in preparation for selling the house so it can be placed back on the tax books. The borough has owned the house since 1972, according to Mayor John F. Morrissey. Borough officials said they expect to remove 300 cubic yards of trash by the end of the month. About 50 yards are expected to be recyclable newspapers and heavy metal such as pipes.

As frustrated residents were hurling their Hefty bags into the street, Mayor Goode said yesterday that city trash collections will continue to be "chaotic and unpredictable" until Philadelphia builds a mass-burning trash plant at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. "Until we find a predictable disposal mechanism, we will have erratic and chaotic, crisis-oriented trash collection because we don't have a predictable place to put the trash," Goode told reporters. ". . . I apologize to the citizens for what is happening, but there is no way that we can solve this problem until we find some way inside this city to dispose of our trash.

The other day as I was putting out trash and garbage it occurred to me that I was becoming an habitual criminal. Trouble is, I don't know where to turn myself in for breaking at least two trash and garbage laws each week. One law says recyclables such as paper, glass and metal cans must be placed in or next to a metal container holding up to 20 gallons. No plastic is allowed. These items are scheduled for collection on a specified day every other week. For my Northeast neighborhood, that day is Monday.

A 49-year-old private trash hauler was sentenced yesterday to an 11 1/2- to 23-month prison term for paying about $20,000 in bribes to city Streets Department employees to allow illegal dumping at city facilities. Anthony Galiano, 49, of Franklin Street near Tasker, who previously pleaded guilty to a bribery charge, also was placed on four years' probation and ordered to make restitution to the city of $30,000 by Common Pleas Judge William Porter. Assistant District Attorney David Michelman said Galiano was one of 14 private haulers and 18 city workers arrested following a grand jury investigation of the payoff scheme, which operated between 1980 and 1985.

In late June, Joan Kaplan of Bustleton noticed that her trash was being picked up two to three days late. "At first, I thought they changed the trash day," she said. Her trash was not the only one left sitting for days. Councilwoman Joan L. Krajewski, who represents the Sixth District, has received 15 to 20 complaints a day at her office. "I'm hearing from my neighbors and all of Mayfair," she said. "Our trash day here is Friday. Sometimes, it doesn't get collected until late Saturday night or early Sunday.

  Philadelphia City Council passed a bill Thursday to allow advertising on municipal property - an idea championed by President Darrell L. Clarke to raise money without hiking taxes. The bill is just the first step, giving zoning permission and setting up a task force that would explore which buildings and other property would be appropriate for advertising and what kinds would be allowed. Ultimately, Mayor Nutter would have to sign a contract with a vendor that would seek and manage advertising.

ATLANTIC CITY - "Who would leave that on the beach?" Hector Guerrero was disgusted by what he saw, the 11-year-old evidently recognizing the object. His mother, wearing gloves, picked it up and threw it in a trash bag. It was a condom. Aura Alejeria, 36, of Somers Point, wasn't surprised: "Condom" was listed on a sheet on which she catalogued all the trash she had found. She and Hector were searching for debris on a mile stretch of beach Saturday along with about 100 other volunteers.

They don't have a name. But if they did, it might be this: Trash Walkers. That isn't a rock band or a reality-TV show, but a group of people in Cheltenham Township who, while out on their regular, healthful walk, make it a mission to search out, pick up, and dispose of all the trash they can find - everything from candy wrappers to car tires. "There's a bottle," veteran walker Bill Schwarzschild said Monday, spying a flash of curbside plastic as he began his trek along Jenkintown Road.

If all goes well, May 13 will come and go with Mount Laurel homeowners taking little notice of that humblest of household chores: taking out the trash. Garbage trucks will rumble through neighborhoods. Their brakes will squeal, crushers will whine, and barrels that were heavy at dawn will be empty by noon. What will be different will be the cost. Starting that day and continuing for at least three years, trash collection throughout the town will be handled not by township employees, but by a private company.

Committing a crime close to home can be hazardous to your freedom. Especially when you live nearby, wheel a trash can full of loot to your home, and then go back for more. A mother and her daughter returned to their Birmingham Township, Chester County, residence Tuesday afternoon to be confronted by two teenagers pointing guns at them, authorities said. When the mother ran outside, and called 911, the teenagers fled. Their freedom was short-lived. Only about 150 yards from the women's home, police found Daniel K. Walston and Alexander W. Granger at Granger's home, Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said in a news release.

Committing a crime close to home can be hazardous to your freedom. Especially when you live nearby and wheel a trash can full of loot to your home - and then go back for more. A mother and her daughter returned to their Birmingham Township residence in Chester County on Tuesday afternoon to be confronted by two teenagers, pointing guns at them, authorities said. When the mother broke free, ran outside and called 911, the teenagers fled. Their freedom was short-lived. Only about 150 yards from the women's home, police found the suspects, Daniel K. Walston and Alexander W. Granger, at Granger's home, Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said in a news release.

Sanitation workers discovered what appeared to be a grenade in the back of their truck Friday morning in the city's Kingsessing section, officials said. The object was inert, police said. The incident occurred about 9, while the workers were collecting trash in the 2000 block of South Frazier Street, officials said. After spotting the object, the workers drove the truck to the end of the block and called police. The bomb squad removed the object. - Robert Moran

AS A LIFELONG resident of this city I have seen and heard of a lot of things. What happened to me recently made me so mad that I wanted to get up and just leave this city. I received a $50 citation for putting out my trash early. Are you kidding me? The fact that the city wastes time and money on something like this is absurd. OK, so I find out that trash is not allowed out until after 7 p.m. and I put mine out around noon the day before. The reason is, I worked 2-11 that day and didn't want to have to do it at 11:30 when I got home.

TWO MEN who survived being shot on a SEPTA train last month testified during a preliminary hearing Thursday that the incident started as sports-trash talk but quickly escalated. Gunman Matthew Early, 18, was held for trial on two counts of attempted murder and related charges by Municipal Judge William Austin Meehan Jr., who also dropped a conspiracy-to-commit-murder charge at the request of defense attorney Jennifer Powell Mondesire. Tremaine Fortune, 35, said that while he and two friends were standing on the westbound Market-Frankford El train talking about the Dec. 12 Philadelphia 76ers-Chicago Bulls game they had just attended, Eric Early, 17, shouted for him to "Shut the f--- up, old head!

If every week of the year had a slogan, this week's would be: "Out with the old, in with the new. " But if you're making room for a new TV or laptop, you can't just chuck the old ones in the trash. Most electronic devices contain toxic elements like lead, mercury, silicon, and cadmium that can contaminate landfills. The plastic on the outside and the precious metals on the inside should be recycled - and might even bring in a profit for a local charity. Perhaps more important, starting Jan. 24, Pennsylvania laws will bar putting computers, monitors, laptops, keyboards, printers, or TVs in with the regular trash.