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Zero Waste

  • Antiques
    • Bittersweet | 278 Keswick Ave, Glenside PA | 215.884.8414
    • Gilbert’s Upholstery & Antique Gallery | 4529 Frankford Ave, Phila PA | 215.744.5385
    • Oliver’s Antiques | 2052 Fairmount Ave, Phila PA | 215.232.8377
  • Appliance Recycling
    • Air conditioners & items with freon
      • Safe Disposal Systems | 4301 N. Delaware Ave., Philadelphia PA 19137 | 215.268.7500 | safedisposal.com
      • Recycle Metals Corporation | 407 Alan Wood Rd., Conshohocken PA 19428 | 610.828.5553 | recyclemetalscorp.com
    • Refrigerator or freezer | Get $35 to recycle an old working refrigerator thru PECO’s Smart Appliance Recycling program  | 888.5.PECO.SAVE | peco.com
    • Other appliances can be taken to City Sanitation Yards
  • Appliance Reuse
  • Artists using Found Objects
    • Tesserae Studio Gallery | Recycle your broken pottery into beautiful craft and gift items. Tesserae offers mosaic classes, mosaic parties, and offers a rotating collection of local artwork and crafts. The owner also does custom mosaic artwork and mosaic restoration | Jessica Gorlin-Liddell | 6780 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19119 | (215) 848-2110 | bellamosaic.com
    • Recycled Artist in Residency (RAIR) | onsite at Revolution Recovery, demonstrating just how valuable recovered material can be | rairphilly.org
    • Zagar’s Magic Gardens | accepts broken mirrors | 1020 South St, Philadelphia PA 19147 | 215.733.0390 | phillymagicgardens.org
  • Batteries
    • Car batteries | Take to nearest Auto Parts Store
    • Recyclable batteries | Use rechargeable as much as possible.  One rechargeable battery is equal to approximately 500 batteries.  Rechargeable batteries can be recycled, free to the consumer, thru the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp with dropoff locations across the nation |1-877-2-RECYCLE | Call2Recycle.org
    • Single use alkaline batteries | Take to the City’s next Household Hazardous Waste event or organize your group and send to Battery Recycling | batteryrecycling.com
  • Bikes & Parts | donations accepted, call first
    • Neighborhood Bike Works | neighborhoodbikeworks.org
      • West Philly | 3916 Locust Walk Philadelphia PA 19104 | 215.386.0316
      • Haddington | 230 N Salford St Philadelphia PA 19139 | 215.476.1817
      • N Phila | 1424 Susquehanna Ave Philadelphia PA 19121 | 215.717. 3305
      • S Phila | 508 S 5th Street Philadelphia PA 19147
      • Fire Chiefs Memorial Bandshell | Elmwood Park Norristown, PA 19401
  • Books | donations accepted, call first | hardcover & paperbacks can be recycled at curbside
    • Bindlestiff Books | 4530 Baltimore Ave | 215.222.2432
    • The Book Corner | run by Friends of the Free Library. For more than a small box of books, call first! | 311 N 20th St (the corner of 20th and Wood) | 215-567-0527
    • The Book Trader | 7 North 2nd St | 215.925.0517
    • Bookhaven | 2202 Fairmount Ave | 215.235.3226
    • Books through Bars | providing books to citizens in prison | 4722 Baltimore Ave | Philadelphia PA 19143 | 215 727 8170 | booksthroughbars.org
    • Brickbat Books | 709 South 4th St | 215.592.1207
    • Jules Goldman Books | 29 North 2nd St | 215.923.2203
    • Gilmore’s Book Shop | 43 E. Chestnut Hill Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19118 | (215) 248-1763
    • House of Our Own | 3920 Spruce St | 215.222.1576
    • The Last Word Bookshop | 220 South 40th St | 215.386.7750
    • Misc Libri @ Reading Terminal Market | 51 North 12th St | 215.238.9884
    • Molly’s Bookstore | 1010 South 9th St | 215.923.3367
    • Mostly Books | 529 Bainbridge | 215.238.9838 | facebook/mostlybooksphilly
    • Mostly Books | 259 South 10th St | 215.592.8380 | facebook/mostlybooksphilly
    • The Next Page | another bookstore run by Friends of the Free Library. No textbooks, encyclopedias, condensed books, or magazines, and no pick up service. | 722 Chestnut Street | 215-925-0722
    • Port Richmond Books | 3037 Richmond St | 215.425.3385
    • Robins Books | 110A South 13th St | 215.567.2615
    • The Spiral Bookcase | 112 Cotton St, Manayunk, Phila PA 19127 | 215.482.0704 | thespiralbookcase.com
    • Whodunit Book Store | 1931 Chestnut St | 215.567.1478
    • Wooden Shoe Books | volunteer-run since 1976 | 704 South St | 215.413.0999 | woodenshoebooks.org
  • Books, outside Philadelphia | donations accepted
    • Abington Library Book Cellar | 1030 Old YOrk Rd, Abington PA 19001 | 215.885.5180
  • Building Materials – Salvaged
  • Building Materials – Reused
    • Habitat for Humanity | 1829 N 19th St, Philadelphia PA 19121 | 215.765.6000 | habitatphiladelphia.org
    • Habitat for Humanity | 2930 Jasper St, Philadelphia PA 19134
      Philadelphia Salvage | 542 Carpenter Ln, Philadelphia PA 19119 | 215.843.3074 | philadelphiasalvage.com
    • Provenance | 912 Canal St, Philadelphia PA 19123 | 215.925.2002 | phillyprovenance.com
    • The Resource Exchange | 2829 Cedar St. (entrance on Cambria St.), Philadelphia PA 19134 (open weekends & by appointment) | 267.997.0060 | www.theresourceexchange.org
    • ReStore | 3016 E Thompson St, Philadelphia PA 19134 | 215.634.3474 | re-store-online.com
  • Building Materials – Reconstituted
  • Clothing
    • Big Brothers Big Sisters | free home pickup | 877.336.8828 | donatebbbs.org
    • Goodwill | free home pickup | 800.goodwill | goodwillnj.org
  • Composting Services
    • Bennett Compost | bennettcompost.com | offering residential curbside pickup in South Philly
    • The Compost Coop | Bringing affordable community composting to Fishtown and Kensington. For $50 a year ($25 if you volunteer) you can turn your food scraps to beautiful compost. Drop off at the Garden Center located on Frankford Ave and Berks on Thursdays 4pm and Saturdays 11:30am. | To signup, contact The.Compost.Coop@gmail.com | 215-427-0350 x125
    • PA Biomass Trader | for B2B trading of biomass (agricultural residues, biofuels, compost, energy crops, food waste, manure, processing residues, restaurant waste, woody material) | biomasstrader.org/pennsylvania
  • Compost sharing
    • The Philly Compost Google map | aiding residents to share compost bins – find one near you | map
  • Construction & Demolition Waste
    • Richard S Burns | 4300 Rising Sun Ave, Phila PA 19140 | 215.324.6377 | burnscompany.net
    • Revolution Recovery | construction waste recycled – wood, dryswall, metal, rubble, cardboard, plastic, ceiling tile, paper, carpet & more | 7333 Milnor St, Phila PA 19136 | 215.333.6505 | revolutionrecovery.com
  • Education & Advocacy Groups
    • Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia – Clean Air Council | An association of 25 organizations who support expanding recycling programs in Philadelphia. Using door-to-door canvass operations, web alerts, and public events, the Alliance specifically advocates for the implementation of recycling in City institutions such as schools and sports complexes, and an increase in the number and percent of materials collected. | cleanair.org/recyclingalliance
    • Recycle NOW Philadelphia | A project of the Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia, which successfully brought incentive-based single-stream recycling to Philadelphia. | recyclenowphila.org
    • Recycle NOW West Philly | Ben Ditzler | the West Philly chapter of the citywide RecycleNOW campaign. | groups.yahoo.com/group/recyclenowwestphilly
    • Tyler Talks Trash | Tyler Weaver is a garbage & compost expert obsessed with waste since he climbed into his first dumpster | tylertalkstrash.com & crazyaboutcompost.com
    • Zero Waste America (ZWA) | An Internet-based environmental research organization specializing in the field of Zero Waste. We provide (through our website, primarily), information on associated legislative, legal, technical, environmental, health, and consumer issues | Lynn Landes | 217 S. Jessup Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 | 215-629-3553 | zerowasteamerica.org
  • Electronics Recycling | cell phones & chargers, computers & components, especially TVs
    • Best Buy | any store? any item?
    • City sanitation yards | Mon-Sat 8-3
      • Northwest | Domino Lane & Umbria Street | 216.685.2502
      • Northeast | State Road & Ashburner Street | 215.685.8072
      • Southwest | 3033 South 63rd Street – Northwest of Passyunk Ave | 215.685.4290
    • City’s Household Hazardous Waste events
    • eForce Compliance | 3114 Grays Ferry Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19146 | 215.964.6669 | eforcecompliance.com
    • Elemental | 2371 Church St, Phila PA 19124 | 215.289.1475 | eleminc.com
    • EraseMyLaptop | 1725 South St, Phila PA | 215.798.0107 | erasemylaptop.com
    • GigaBiter | global leader in total computer destruction | gigabiter.com
  • Electronics Reuse | cell phones & chargers, computers & components, especially TVs
    • any Goodwill store – TV & audio systems to be sold in their thrift stores
    • Nonprofit Technology Resources – Computers and peripherals to be sold in their thrift store | 1524 Brandywine St, Philadelphia PA 19130| 215.564.6686 | ntrweb.org
    • Offer on local Freecycle or Craigslist
  • Eyeglasses | donations get distributed around the world
    • dropoff at any Pearl Vision, Lens Crafters, Sears Optical, Target Optical, Lions Club
  • Furniture Reuse
    • Take to nearby thrift store or offer on local Freecycle or Craigslist
    • Just Like New Furniture, 1446 W Hunting Park Ave, Phila PA | 215.457.1414
    • Salvation Army | free home pickup | 800.728.7825 | satruck.org
    • Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles | free home pickup | 215.546.9616 | apedf.org
  • Light Bulbs
    • CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) are a great way to reduce the electric bill.  One issue is that they contain small amounts of mercury and cannot be thrown away in the trash.  If you’ve got the curly ones that fit in standard light sockets, wrapin paper or plastic bag and take to nearby Best Buy, Home Depot, Ikea, Lowes, Whole Foods or the City’s next Household Hazardous Waste event.
    • The long tubes & circle fluorescent bulbs can be taken to the City’s next Household Hazardous Waste event or that you order a prepaid container and ship to a recycler such as Waste Management’s Lamp Tracker program.
    • Incandescent bulbs can be taken to the nearby Home Depot.
  • Metals
    • Ferrous metals can be taken to the City Sanitation Yards or scrap yards.
    • Non-ferrous metals are best taken to scrap yards eager to buy them.
      • John Dieterly, Jr | 401 S Tyson Ave Glenside PA 19038 | 215-886-9607
      • Geppert Recycling | 4500 Wayne Ave, Germantown Phila PA 19144 | 215 842 0122 | geppertrecycling.com
      • Penn Treaty Metals Co | 1415 Frankford Ave, Kensington, Phila PA 19125 | 215.423.2110
      • Jack’s Paper Stock & Scrap Metals | 3616 Emerald St, Port Richmond, Phila PA 19134 | 215.535.7588
  • Music
    • Hideaway Music | new & used CDs, DVDs, LPs | 8612 Germantown Ave, Phila PA 19119 | Brian Reisman | 215.248.4454
  • Oils
  • Packing Materials | styrofoam peanuts, bubble wrap, airpacks
    • Dropoff for reuse at nearby Mailboxes Etc or UPS Store
  • Paint
    • Latex or oil paint, if usable, can be donated to Spiral Q Puppet Theater or other non-profit art groups,
    • Dry empty cans are handled by Philadelphia’s Curbside recycling
    • Oil paint cans should be taken to the City’s next Household Hazardous Waste event
  • Paper & Books
    • Shred Patrol | for mobile document destruction | 215.947.1010 | shredpatrol.com
    • Harvest Book Outlet | 185 Commerce Drive, Fort Washington PA 19034 | 215.619.0975 | harvestbooks.com
  • Plastics
    • Food containers labeled 1 thru 7 are accepted by the City’s Curbside Recycling program
    • Plant pots can be returned to nursery, or recycled via the City’s Curbside Recycling program
    • Plastic bags and wraps are accepted by most grocery stores
    • Styrofoam accepted at the City’s Northeast Sanitation yard
  • Prescription Drugs are best returned to the nearby pharmacy
  • Recycle – Business to Business
    • Black Gold Biofuels | biodiesel from wastewater in commercial grease traps | 1528 Walnut St, 21st Floor, Phila PA 19102 | 215.253.5844 | blackgoldbiofuels.com
    • Waste Oil Recyclers | pays to pickup used cooking oil, to be eventually used as fuel | 610.505.0250 | wasteoilrecyclers.com
  • Recycle – Residential 
    • Carpet | residents can dropoff non-polyester carpets for recycling, for free | The Foam Recycle Center | 2014 Ford Rd, Bristol PA | 610.247.0596
    • City of Philadelphia’s weekly curbside single stream residential recycling picks up: cartons, metal cans (aerosol, aluminum, food & paint), glass containers, mixed paper (magazines, catalogs, newspapers, phone books, junk mail), plastic containers (#1 thru #7 including bottlecaps), cardboard | philadelphiastreets.com/recycling.aspx
    • City of Philadelphia’s Sanitation Yards | dropoff same materials accepted curbside plus metal & e-waste for recycling AND pickup blue recycling bin |open Mon – Sat 8-3 | recyclenowphila.org/recycling_centers.html
      • Northwest | Domino Lane & Umbria Street | 216.685.2501 x02
      • Northeast | State Road & Ashburner Street | 215.685.8072 x73
      • Southwest | 3033 South 63rd Street – Northwest of Passyunk Ave | 215.685.4290 x01
    • City of Philadelphia’s Household Hazardous Waste drop-off events, April thru November | 215.686.5560 | philadelphiastreets.com/hazardous-waste-events
    • Mt Airy Greening Net’s A to Z guide of Reuse & Recycling options | mtairygreening.net/atoz.html
    • Philadelphia Recycling Rewards – Get rewarded for recycling! City-run program aiming to educate and reward Philadelphia residents to recycle | recyclebank.com
    • RecycleBank | 888-RB-PAYSU | provide communities with a cost effective and environmentally conscious solution to the rising cost of waste collection, behind the scenes of the Philadelphia Recycling Rewards | recyclebank.com
    • Recycling Services Inc (RSI) | 365 Elm Street, Pottstown, PA 19465 | 610.323.8545 | A nonprofit recycling and energy center. | recyclingservices.org
    • Refrigerator | Get $35 to recycle an old working refrigerator thru PECO’s Smart Appliance Recycling program  | pecosmartideas.com/programsandrebates/residential/appliancerecycling
  • Recycle – Residential – Hazardous Waste
    • programs funded in part by the PA DEP with dropoff sites available in each county.
      • Computer Electronics & Televisions,
        • dropoff at City of Philadelphia’s Northwest & Northeast Sanitation convenience sites from Monday thru Saturday 8am till 6pm
        • local groups often organize fundraising drives to collect these. Let us know of upcoming ones to publish here.
        • Materials Processing Corp (MPC) | e-waste recycling in NE Phila | mpc-e.com
        • Staples accepts all Dell electronics for free and other brands for approximately $10
      • Flammable Materials, such as kerosene & gasoline
      • Fluorescent Bulbs | the long tubes & circle fluorescent bulbs
        • dropoff at
          • City of Philadelphia’s next Household Hazardous Waste collection
          • Revolution Recovery for a nominal fee
        • order a prepaid container and ship to a recycler such as
      • Kitchen, Bathroom & Cleaning Products, such as cleaning solvents, fire extinguishers, aerosol cans, oven cleaner, drain cleaners
      • Other Materials, such as asbestos, disposable batteries, lead & mercury
      • Paint & Paint Related Materials, such as paint thinner, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, propane cylinders, pool chemicals
  • Repair
    • Appliance Repair
      • Steady Dan’s Appliance Repair | repairs at half the rate of the big shops, often with same day service | 856.842.8696
    • Jewelry Repair
      • Jiang Creations | 7903 High School Rd, Elkins Park PA 19027 | 215.690.4355
      • Paul Ross Jewelsmith | 7906 High School Rd, Elkins Park PA 19027 | 215-ME5-0555
    • Piano Repair
      • John Michael Berrong & Son | piano rebuilding & refinishing | 610.212.1662
      • Kathy Harrod Piano Tuning & Repairs | Kathy Harrod | 137 Orchard Ct, Blue Bell PA 19422 | 215.654.9232
      • Lawrence H. Fornaci | 435 Twickenham Rd, Glenside PA 19038 | 215-572-6256 | piano tuning
    • Printer Repair
      • Fixed Electronic Services | 423 W Waverly Rd, Glenside PA 19038
    • Sewing Machine Repair
      • Stitchers Dream | 211 S Easton Rd, Glenside PA 19038 | 215.885.3780
    • Shoe Repair
      • Carman’s Shoe Repair | shoes – shoe care & accessories | 8111 Germantown Ave, Chestnut Hill,. Phila PA 19118 | 215.247.7706 | carmansshoerepair.com
      • Villa’s Shoe Repair‎ | 266 South 19th Street, Phila PA 19103 | (215) 545-5837
      • Village Tailors & Shoe Repairs | 508-510 Central Ave, Cheltenham Village PA 19012 | 215.663.1623
      • Wayne & Walnut Shoe Repair | 6081 Wayne Ave, Germantown, Phila PA 19144 | 215.848.4112
      • Cappies | Lawrence Park Shopping Center, Swarthmore PA
      • Booth Corners Market
      • Pilgrim Shoe Repair | 1010 Warrior Rd, Drexel Hill PA | 610.446.9927
    • Violin Repair
  • Reuse
    • Architectural Salvage, see under Green Building
    • Craigslist | philadelphia.craigslist.org
    • PA Biomass Trader | free online service to give or get Biofuels, Compost, Energy crops, Food waste, Manure, Restaurant waste or Woody material | biomasstrader.org/pennsylvania
    • PA Materials Trader | free online service to give or get materials businesses need to dispose of on a regular basis, such as agricultural by-products, ash, cardboard, chemicals, computers & electronics, construction & demolition materials, equipment, glass, metals & metal sludges, oils & waxes, paints & coatings, paper, plastic & rubber, sand, shipping materials, textiles, wood | materialtrader.org
    • PhillyFreecycle | groups.yahoo.com/group/phillyfreecycle | the region’s free online materials exchange
    • Thrift Stores, see under Clothing
  • Textiles
    • You can also save up for the next clothing swap, Free-for-All or Free Store in your neighborhood. Annual ones listed below:
  • Tires
    • Automotive tires accepted at the City’s Sanitation Yards
    • Bicycle tires accepted at Pep Boys
  • Yard waste | brush, tree branches, christmas trees, grass clippings, leaves

last update: 13 October 2020

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