May 08, 2015
Brandon Baker/for PhillyVoice
A sidewalk-chalk call on South Philadelphians to pick up their trash.
Philadelphia City Council has approved a plan that will require corner stores and restaurants in Philadelphia to put trash and recycling bins near their entrances in an effort to reduce litter, CBSPhilly reports.
The plan, which is modeled on Walt Disney's closely placed trash can system, requires all stores that sell any type of food to have a trash can within 10 feet of the entrance.
When Walt Disney was building Disneyland, he determined that if the trash cans were more than 30 steps apart, people would simply litter. So Disney’s trash cans had to be closer together.
“Restaurants in particular, corner stores especially, will now be required to have some type of trash receptacle and a recycling bin outside of their establishment," the bill's sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, told CBSPhilly. "Because if we accept the Disneyland theory, when citizens do not have a receptacle within thirty steps of leaving the store, it ends up on the corner. So (this) is a small step toward trying to clean up our city beyond the boundaries of the Center City District.”
Council also approved a related measure that requires landlords to supply trash and recycling bins inside apartment buildings. Both bills now head to the mayor.
Read more from CBSPhilly.
