A Tour of Circular Philadelphia Initiatives
Circular Philadelphia inspired the creation of Circular Twin Cities. We believe similarly that there need to be hyperlocal forums that showcase, support, and connect circular economy initiatives. With the opportunity to visit Philadelphia in September, I couldn’t wait to meet Nicolas (Nic) Esposito and Samantha (Sam) Wittchen in-person and get to know the people and initiatives that are making Philadelphia more circular.
On Friday, September 29th, I met up with Nic at his home in Kensington to start the day.
The Rounds
I was curious to learn about Nic’s The Rounds membership so before we headed out, he gave me the run through: which products they use, how they are packaged, and what the process is like from ordering them online to getting them dropped off at home each Thursday.
I also had the chance to meet one of Nic’s young sons who kicked off the tour series right in their backyard: he showed me the community garden that his mom started for the neighborhood filled with mint, figs, and grapes. It was the sweetest! And for those in Philly, be sure to check out their Haunted House and Laboratory in a couple weeks made with repurposed materials.
Revolution Recovery and RAIR
On the car ride over, Nic and I chatted about all the redevelopment, construction, and demolition cities are experiencing such as Philadelphia. There are a couple leading questions:
what can be recycled?
what can be reused?
who, if anyone, can benefit from this process?
That’s where Revolution Recovery comes in. They are the resource for haulers who are managing all the materials coming out of these sites i.e. dimensional lumber, drywall, metal, plastic, concrete rubble, cardboard and so much more. When building his own home, Nic connected his hauler with Revolution Recovery which ended up costing them less and being a closer drop-off location than the landfill he was using before then.
They take it one step further which is the exciting part and demonstrates the potential of interdisciplinary efforts - with RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residency). Billy Dufala, the co-founder and Creative Director of RAIR led us on a walkthrough of the Revolution Recovery and RAIR spaces starting with the lot where the haulers dump what’s in their trucks. “Follow this stuff and you’ll find endless opportunities,” exclaims Billy. And the stuff he is referring to is 550 gallons a day of material that is dropped off and can be a goldmine for artists to use in their work. It’s estimated 50% of what is brought in is diverted.
Up next for Billy and his team is a project on the outskirts of the property where they will have 6-7 acres of land to highlight river and water conservation through artistic storytelling.
Billy, the Creative Director at RAIR chats about material inspiration and research:
Can propylene fabric from the healthcare industry be reused as landscape fabric?
Nic shared that there has been an exciting turnaround in Philadelphia and the impact is yet to be clear but anticipated positive. The old tax abatement was for construction, now it’s for renovation. Are there organizations filling the gap Revolution Recovery is in Philadelphia in other cities as well? Are there similar policies put in place and what has the measured impact been so far?
Bennett Compost
In Philadelphia, the city only offers residential waste pickup (trash and recycling). There was no urban composting solution until Bennett Compost came to be, now processing over 5 tons of food waste. The team behind Bennett Compost, Tim Bennett and Jennifer Mastalerz worked with Nic of Circular Philadelphia (at the time he was working with the City) to expand their impact from a policy-standpoint. They ultimately were able to create a statewide composting permit with an interesting win-win-win: a portion of the compost they product at Bennett Compost goes to city gardens.
I strongly believe that composting is the single most powerful action any individual can take right now to minimize their negative impact and it was wonderful to see a business making it easy in an urban setting to do so with a #BennettBucket. Buckets are provided to residents as well as businesses and get picked up by bike around the city. From there, they are taken to a central location where a van picks up the collected material and brings it back to their composting facility in Lawncrest. The compost takes around 4 months in total to process (two months in the initial phase and two months in the cool-down phase). They sell potting mix, compost, vermicompost and Rice Hulls (a popular request for those making their own mixes).
Resource Exchange
Neighbor to NextFab and Beaty American (like-minded organizations with creativity and reuse at the center of their work), Resource Exchange has one of the most diverse collections of products I’ve ever come across in one space. You’ll find a mini-hardware store and paint shop (they are the only ones in the City taking paint right now due to high processing costs), an art gallery (filled with products made by artists/customers of the store who purchase their materials from there), a fabric stock room, and a Random Room for fun exploring.
Karyn Gerred, the director of Resource Exchange has a Theatre background and is motivated to get as much material from stages (i.e. props) saved from the landfill and reused. Peek into one of the main shop windows and you’ll see a Rocky poster used in the production of Rocky III.
Rabbit Recycling
And very quickly on our way back, we made a stop so Nic could introduce me to the happenings at Rabbit Recycling. It is a resource for those hard-to-recycle items such as plastic film and batteries.
Philadelphia, as Nic mentioned, was one of the leading workshops in the world. It was invigorating to experience a robust economy driven by circularity and the shared goal to produce with less, and have a better impact.
Nic and Sam, thank you for organizing a spectacular tour of some circular economy initiatives in Philadelphia!