A trail of trash led to accountability this week when a demolition contractor agreed to help clean up illegal dumping behind Valley Greene Apartments after a persistent resident traced the mess back to him. The "trash mountain," obnoxiously visible from both Valley Greene windows and Fairmount Park trails, will soon be removed by one of the companies responsible for putting it there.

The story of how that happened illustrates the nature of this city’s chronic problem with illegal dumping. 

Finding the culprit

Kristopher Geraci, who lives at Alden Park, found the offender by tracing an address he saw printed on one of the cardboard boxes in the trash pile. When he looked up the address in city records, he discovered that 5837 Anderson St. was a former Philadelphia Housing Authority property that had been purchased and was being redeveloped by a local contractor, with financing managed by Jumpstart.

That developer, Jordan Parisse-Ferrarini, told the Local that he paid $5,500 to Say No More Demolition to clean out the property and properly dispose of the waste. He was furious to discover it had been illegally dumped.

"It feels horrible, especially since it's the complete opposite of what we're trying to do with that property," Parisse-Ferrarini said. "It was a vacant, blighted property, so we're trying to remove blight from the neighborhood and create home ownership and for there to be more blight created from it is the absolute opposite of what we're about."

Demolition company takes responsibility

The Local called Donte Sanders, owner of Say No More Demolition, who said that he paid a subcontractor his typical fee - which is about $500 – to haul a truckload of trash and has no idea how or why it wound up in the pile behind Valley Greene. The person he hired was not someone he knows personally or works with regularly, he said. 

Donte Sanders pledged to come and clean it up.

"I don't know what happened, but what I am going to try to do is try to fix the situation without debating about the situation," Sanders told the Local. "If I can get some dumpsters out there, or if I can put a crew together to get out there and clean it up or do some community service at the end of the day, to meet both standards and please each other, I'm willing to do that."

Sanders explained that it's common at work sites for sub-contractors to show up with trucks and offer to haul away construction waste for a fee.

"They might say 'Oh, we're gonna pick this stuff up for a certain amount, or we'll give you a 12-foot truck for $500, whatever you could put in there, as long as it doesn't go over,'" Sanders said. "So that's why I can't try to defend it because I don't know what happened."

The economics of dumping

For contractors, proper waste disposal costs can vary depending on the size of the project.

"On average when you go to the dump it's $400 to $800," Parisse-Ferrarini said. "What they did with that stuff was completely wrong, and that wasn't right, but they were paid in full to do the contract."

According to local developer and Jumpstart founder Ken Weinstein, the fee paid by Parisse-Ferrarini was big enough to cover legal dumping costs, known in the industry as “tipping fees.” Contractors who try to save money by finding a subcontractor to do it for much less are asking for trouble – and are at least partly to blame when it gets dumped illegally.

"If you know you're not paying enough to cover the actual cost of a legal dumping fee, then to some extent that's on you," Weinstein said. "That wasn't the case in this instance."

Weinstein said he knows well how frustrating – and costly – it can be to clean up the mess. He himself has had to clean up big piles of debris that had been illegally dumped on his property at least four times.

A growing problem

Once bandit dumpers target a spot, they'll often return again and again - so the pile gets bigger and bigger.

At Valley Greene, the pile started growing last summer when dumpers found the driveway between it and nearby Alden Park Luxury Apartments, which led to a hidden patch of ground behind Valley Greene.  

Illegal dumping has long been a recurring issue in the city. Mayor Cherelle Parker has made the 'cleaning and greening' of Philadelphia a signature issue in her administration. On Monday, March 3, residents and community groups staged a protest about the problem in front of City Hall.

City response

An Office of Clean and Green Initiatives spokesperson, Keisha McCarty-Skelton, told the Local that the sanitation department spends approximately $1.8 million annually to combat illegal dumping.

The Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP) has the authority to clean up properties and bill the owner if necessary.

As a result of the Local's earlier reporting, CLIP has already cleaned up a large portion of the trash at Valley Greene – at a cost of $3,900, according to McCarty-Skelton. In this case, CLIP plans to submit a bill to property owner Alden Park.

But CLIP didn't get it all – and left a large pile cascading down the hill toward Fairmount Park land. Getting that will require special equipment because of the steepness of the hill.

The path forward

McCarty-Skelton said enforcement will need to be a critical part of solving the problem. 

“Our investment in surveillance cameras, that are strategically placed in known hot spots, have resulted in increased arrests and decreased dumping across the city," McCarty-Skelton said. "Currently, over 300 cameras have been installed for illegal dumping around the city. The City will expand the number of cameras by 100 this year to other locations to identify and hold illegal dumpers accountable. The Law Department prosecuted over 50 illegal dumping cases resulting in more than $3 million dollars in judgments and received over $200,000 in settlements from illegal dumpers in 2024."

While other contractors' trash has ended up at Valley Greene, Sanders wants to be the one to make it right. The steep hill may prove challenging, but Sanders will look to help in whatever way he can. Sanders plans to meet with Valley Greene resident Susan Schaefer on Tuesday to plan out a potential clean-up.

McCarty-Skelton said the City hopes to come and do it next week, and bring special equipment.

 With Sanders promising to take care of it, look for reporting in next week’s Local to find out who gets there first.