TRASH STRIKE: Philly prepares for the worst as sanitation workers walk out, 63 drop sites will open Tuesday

Drew Smith
June 30, 2025
Philly
0 Comments

Trash Strike? Hey Philadelphia, welcome to the summer of stink. The city is about to find out what 1986 smelled like, because starting Tuesday, July 1, the city’s sanitation workers, water department employees, 911 dispatchers, and a whole bunch of other essential city workers might be walking off the job.

Philly prepares for trash strike as sanitation workers walk out

2/ Starting at 5pm tomorrow, the 63 trash drop-off locations will be ready to begin accepting residents garbage “as close to their collection day as possible.” Should the strike last long, addional trash drop off locations will be set up. “Only bagged trash will be accepted.”
— Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) June 30, 2025

Basically, negotiations between the city and AFSCME District Council 33 have hit a wall, and the union says it’s tired of being underpaid and under-appreciated.

City officials aren’t taking chances. They just announced a “modified trash collection plan” earlier this evening. Trash and recycling will stop if the strike hits at midnight tonight.

The plan is to set up 63 temporary trash drop-off sites that will open Tuesday morning across the city, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday (excluding July 4).

Don’t bring loose trash. Don’t bring your broken couch. You’ve got a limit of 8 bags, and they better be tied and sealed like they’re going to landfill heaven.

Torn on which side to take with the trash strike? Me too.

For the life of me, I really don’t see how any of this is going to go as planned. What about the elderly? They won’t be taking trash anywhere. For those who don’t have means of transportation, you can forget about them as well.

Then of course, there’s the majority of people who just don’t give a shit. Hell, I’m down in South Philly right now and every street is handling this like it’s business as usual. Trash bags are out on the curb. Not a care in the world.

Excuse my lack of understanding on the issue. I just can’t help but think how it’s going to smell when I walk outside tomorrow morning and there’s no trash removal after all the thunderstorms tonight and that’s just day one of the strike.

Smelly trash. No one is picking it up. Gross. Maybe city hall should rethink this and just pay this union more money and give them what they want instead of handing out hefty bonuses to themselves?

You can’t have city officials making $300K annually and sitting inside AC offices while arguing with sanitization because they don’t want to give them a raise. How about you relocate some of that tax money and keep these guys happy.

I could name a million spots in city hall that can shift spending to these essential workers and prevent what’s already going to happen on day one, with trash filled curbs and nauseating smells throughout the city.

Really though, I honestly have no idea. I’m sure there are good points to be made on both sides of the equation. However, here’s what I do know. Philly Trash people are absolutely terrible at their jobs. It’s pretty obvious that literally one gives a shit about doing their job correctly, right?

The city is constantly covered in trash. How could anyone ask for a raise and better job security or else they will enact a trash strike when they’re not, you know, doing their job and keeping the city clean in the first place?

If you want to go on a trash strike and the city is spotless, then by all means, you have my support, but it’s not like these people are working overtime. In fact, I think it’s pretty clear that they are doing the bare minimum.

At the same time, I am here to fight with the common man. They want a trash strike then fuck it, strike we will. Mayor Parker needs to get the house in order or I’ll be on the side of dumping trash at her house and city hall by the end of the week.