Past Projects & Focuses

Platform Areas: Waste, Transportation

Trash and recycling collection is one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. In 2017, the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries ranked Sanitation Work as the 5th most dangerous civilian occupation. The risks for workers in Philadelphia is no different– in 2015, the PhillyVoice reported that the Streets Department averages about 800 injuries per year, with 80-90 percent of those injuries sustained by Sanitation Workers.

Sanitation Workers face hazards related to how residents dispose of their waste (throwing away exposed needles, acid and other hazardous materials, body waste, etc.), sanitation trucks and equipment (outdated safety gear, health and safety risks from diesel truck pollution and trash dumping), and public safety (gang and drug-related violence against workers on the job).

April 16, 2018 marked 50 years since the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, highlighting just how little has changed for Sanitation Workers in regards to equitable pay scales for labor, workplace safety, and public and institutional respect for labor unions and their members.

The Sanitation Workers Oral History Project

PCW is partnering with AFSCME DC 33 Local 427 to develop an oral history project in collaboration with Drexel University’s Ethnography Lab to elevate the experiences of Sanitation Workers as both an environmental justice and workers rights issue. We are conducting oral history interviews with Sanitation Workers and surveying AFSCME DC 33 Local 427 members on their experiences on the job, the health and safety risks they face, and their feedback on how the City of Philadelphia can reduce harm to workers.

We believe that Hazard Pay, updated uniform and safety requirements, and a transition away from diesel sanitation trucks to electric trucks are interventions that have the potential to cushion Sanitation Workers from the negative impacts of their job. Hazard Pay can help offset increased health-related expenses of workers, electric trash trucks eliminates tailpipe emissions as a health hazard, and new safety gear will help protect workers from hazardous materials in the waste stream.