Issuu

E-bikes: A godsend or a menace? Philadelphia fights the plastic recycling disinformation campaign

200

Life-changing books, delivered to prisoners JANUARY 2026 / ISSUE 200 / GRIDPHILLY.COM

TO WA R D A S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum defends the Delaware from further exploitation

HOLDING LINE T H E •

issue

2008

–202

Not sure what to do with your

CHRISTMAS TREE For the 15th year in a row, Bennett Compost has you covered! We are working with the Fishtown Neighbors Association to help you out. OPTION 1

DROP-OFF

The Fishtown Neighbors Association Tree-Cycling Former Greensgrow Site 2501 East Cumberland Street Saturday, January 10, 2026 | 10am to 2pm $5 suggested donation OPTION 2

BENNETT COMPOST CURBSIDE PICK-UP

December 27 and 28 | January 3 and 4 January 10 and 11 | January 17 and 18 $20 ($5 will be donated to the neighbors association) Sign up for tree pickup in your customer portal under the SHOP tab If you are not a Bennett Compost subscriber, you can schedule a tree pickup at bennettcompost.com/seasonal Please remove all lights and decorations! We can also take live garland and wreaths. Please make sure all wire and metal backing have been removed. OPTION 3

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA For drop-off spots throughout the city, Google “phila.gov tree recycling”

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PUBLI SHE R’S NOTES

by alex mulcahy

ALEX IN

2008

ALEX IN

2025

publisher Alex Mulcahy managing editor Bernard Brown associate editor & distribution Timothy Mulcahy tim@gridphilly.com deputy editor Julia Lowe art director Michael Wohlberg writers Marilyn Anthony Bernard Brown Constance Garcia-Barrio Daniel Sean Kaye Adam Litchkofski Julia Lowe Noah Raven Ed Rodgers Sarah Ruiz Ben Seal Jordan Teicher Betsy Teutsch photographers Chris Baker Evens Adam Litchkofski Julia Lowe Ed Rodgers Tracie van Auken published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY. C O M

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Aspiring to Inspire

elcome to issue #200! I spent a lot of time over the past few weeks flipping through the pages of our debut issue. It may sound somewhat self-aggrandizing, but the first Grid was released as a prototype — not an actual issue — because the concept for a sustainable city magazine had no precedent. (Come to think of it, I haven’t seen copycat magazines in our wake, either. Maybe there’s a reason for that!) At the time, it felt easier to create a prototype than to explain that this new magazine would have environmentalism at its core, but it would also include local food champions, small business owners, clean energy advocates, environmental justice leaders, green architects, gardeners, cyclists and all of the makers and fixers of the region. We would foster a coalition — no, a movement! — that would bring together all of these aligned people on a local level and wrest the power that corporations had snatched from us. On an individual level, our quests to learn to cook, sew and make simple repairs — skills common just a few generations ago — would also make us happier. They were pretty lofty goals, but they were fueled by a sense of purpose. We knew there were consequences for not acting. Pol-

iticians who encouraged climate-friendly policies would often talk about how we needed to protect the planet for our grandkids. Little did they know — or did we — that severe climate disasters were very near at hand. We decided to update several of the stories we published in that prototype issue. One topic we revisit is the state of our bike lanes, where advocates have been on the offense. Happily, biking infrastructure has vastly expanded and improved. There has been opposition and setbacks, but overall the consistent advocacy for cyclists and safer roads has made impressive gains. There have been defensive battles as well. Some very powerful interests wish to again dredge the Delaware, even if it wreaks havoc on the river’s ecosystem. Maya K. van Rossum, our cover star this month, has acted as the Delaware Riverkeeper the entire time Grid has been publishing — and 14 years before that! A story for me that links Grid’s past to its present is the essay by Noah Raven, age 15, born 183 issues ago, about the restoration work that the organization he founded, Monarch Defenders, has done in Wissahickon Valley Park. Over the course of a couple of years, they transformed a space overrun by invasive species and litter into a meadow that supports pollinators. Noah’s story makes me want to join his group, or at the very least, make my very modest front yard more pollinator-friendly. In that way, it’s a classic Grid story. It’s designed to spur you into action. I hope something in this issue is the catalyst that gets you involved. Who knows, maybe six months from now — that would be issue #206 — we could be writing a story about you.

a l e x m u l ca h y , Publisher

COV E R P HOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

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urban naturalist

A Wasteland Transformed Three years of restoration at Buttercup Cottage

by noah raven

4 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

luted city. After the land was incorporated into Wissahickon Valley Park, it was used as a center for the Philadelphia Parks Commission throughout the mid-1900s, until the original cottage was dismantled and its adjacent barn was burned in the 1980s, likely the result of arson. Since then, its ruins have lain abandoned. They became a ground for spray painting, illegal trash dumping and other ne’er-do-well activities, and the land around

them became choked in invasive vines. How do we make this place better? we thought to ourselves as we began what would become a multiyear project. The first summer, our site really didn’t look like much. Our seeds were coming up but were being outcompeted by the invasive Japanese stiltgrass and porcelain berry. And whenever we weeded, the invasives just seemed to come right back. Worse was the

P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y O F N OA H R AV E N

am a 15-year-old resident of Chestnut Hill, and I live near Wissahickon Valley Park. In 2022, I started the group Monarch Defenders, which aims to plant native pocket meadows in Philadelphia and beyond to support endangered monarch butterflies and other pollinators. One of our local meadow restoration projects was done in partnership with Friends of the Wissahickon. Over two years, we revitalized a degraded lot in the Cresheim woods section of Wissahickon Valley Park, around the ruins of Buttercup Cottage, transforming the site — just under an acre — from a wasteland of invasive porcelain berry into a community nature oasis. We planted a native pocket meadow and pollinator garden, removed invasive species, cleaned up trash, created trails and sitting areas, and installed wildlife boxes and community nature art. I found that even a small, forgotten space like this, once restored, can support so much life. Our project began at the end of spring 2023. It was a warm morning in mid-May when we brought our shovels to the site and started to dig. We couldn’t restore the entire field of porcelain berry and Japanese stiltgrass all at once, so we started with a tiny plot, maybe 100 square feet. Over the spring we had grown several native wildflowers from seed, and didn’t have another great place for them, so we transplanted them here. We also threw seed bombs — clay balls full of wildflower seeds — around the site in a helter-skelter attempt to bring back pollinators and wildlife to this land taken over by invasives and filled with litter. Buttercup Cottage is a 19th-century farmhouse and barn at the edge of the park. (Visitors can access the ruin from the trail entrance at the intersection of Emlen Street and Cresheim Road.) Buttercup Cottage was built in the mid-1800s by local landowner Henry Houston as a summer retreat for working-class women who lived in the pol-

Noah Raven (right) and his father Francis helped to plant a meadow at Buttercup Cottage, inviting in pollinators such as monarch butterflies.

trash problem — seemingly every time we went to the site, we found beer cans, spraypaint containers and other litter. When we recruited a few volunteers to help us clean up, we collected enough litter to fill five garbage bags. Yet, every week we worked, things started to get a little bit better — less trash, fewer invasive plants. By the end of our first summer, many of our plants were blooming — blue mistflower, coreopsis, blazing star, goldenrod. And when our wildflowers began to bloom, the pollinators came: In our tiny plot of native meadow amidst the sea of invasives, the bees and butterflies were returning. We saw bumblebees, a few solitary bees, some swallowtails and cabbage whites. Not much, but enough to keep us hoping, planting, working. In the fall of our first year, when the plants were dying back, we decided to remove another section of invasive plants in front of the ruin and re-seed it with a native meadow seed mix. Our hope was that the seeds would overwinter in the soil, getting the cold exposure they needed before sprouting in the spring. During the winter, when we couldn’t plant anything, we focused our attention on cleaning the trails. After years of neglect, they were a mess. In the summer when the trails were covered in overgrowth and invasive vines, we could barely get to the ruin. It was quite an effort to trample over thickets of porcelain berry, so people largely stayed away from this area, with the exception of

those who left behind beer cans and spray cans. So we cleared the trails, pulling weeds by hand and laying down woodchips and flat stones along the trails, making the space easy and pleasant to walk through again. Then, when spring finally arrived, we noticed something amazing: Our seeds had actually come up. By early May 2024, blackeyed Susan, swamp milkweed, anise hyssop and many others were growing fast. Where the seeds hadn’t sprouted, we supplemented them with plant plugs that we sourced from local native plant nurseries. One year after we started, change was on its way — the native meadow was filling in, the invasives were slowly being driven away by our aggressive weeding and the trash was going down. As our improvements to the site began to take hold, people started to internalize that this was a special space, not a dumpsite — so there was less and less dumping, spray painting and other illicit activities. (That’s not to say there weren’t hardships: A bird feeder that we built was tagged with graffiti, an oak sapling that we planted was vandalized and uprooted, and one of the older trees at the site was spray-painted, but all in all, things were getting better). In addition to planting the native meadows, cleaning up the trash and caretaking for the trails, we also added community art. If you walk around Buttercup Cottage now, you may notice the birdfeeders, birdhouses, windchimes and wooden mobiles hung in trees. We first installed several wildlife houses last spring and summer, including a bat

house and a wooden birdhouse, and then we added nature-based art such as wood mobiles and shell windchimes. As we later learned, the art we installed at the site turned this into not just a restoration effort, but a community revitalization project — it brought people and nature together at the site in a new way. As the summer of our second year at Buttercup Cottage progressed, more and more of our flowers were blooming. Each month hosted a variety of blooms: anise hyssop, swamp milkweed, butterfly weed and spiderwort in June; purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, wild bergamot and mountain mint in July; cutleaf coneflower, joe-pye weed, cup plant and partridge pea in August; Canada goldenrod, New England aster, boneset, snakeroot and blue mistflower in September. With each bloom of native wildflowers came the pollinators in full force: tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, azure butterflies, bumblebees, solitary bees and even monarchs. It was very inspiring for us to see this kind of change occur at a site that was once a wasteland of invasive plants. Now at the start of our third winter at Buttercup Cottage, our meadow has attracted wildlife of all kinds, from monarch butterflies to scarlet tanagers, toads and garter snakes to goldfinches and tiger swallowtails. We are continuing to expand our work here, brainstorming and executing new ideas, including planting a hedgerow of native trees and shrubs and creating an educational garden of medicinal native species. This winter, we have plans to further expand our efforts by removing invasive species in an area adjacent to the site and replanting with native trees and shrubs. In the midst of the ever-worsening threats to nature everywhere, Buttercup Cottage has become our one-acre beacon of hope. ◆ To learn more about Monarch Defenders’ local efforts, go to monarchdefenders.org/philly. Those interested in volunteering at the site can contact noah@monarchdefenders.org. JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HILLY.COM 5

philly cooks

Joseph Nguyen starts the perfect brew with field work in the coffee farms of Vietnam.

Specialty Brew Multitalented Temple alum’s new business is for the coffee connoisseur story by marilyn anthony

oseph nguyen, 27, lives in South Philly and holds a 2020 Temple University degree in international business. But if you ask him what he does, the answer is much more nuanced. “I live three different lives,” he says. Nguyen performs audits for government and corporate clients, competes as a Muay Thai martial artist, and runs his Instagram-based business, The Coffee Connoisseur Club (CCC). It’s no wonder Nguyen often consumes three to five cups of coffee daily to fuel his hyperactive life. Through his coffee business, Nguyen wants to foster a connoisseurship among customers that is “conscious and concise.” Customers anywhere in the world can order 6 GRID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

Nguyen’s specialty coffees through his Instagram store, providing their feedback and suggestions on each new release he ships to them. Beyond order fulfillment, Nguyen is on a grand mission born in part from personal setbacks. Nguyen was born in Vietnam and moved to the United States in 1999. He grew up in Atlantic City, won a crew scholarship to Temple and enrolled in the Fox School of Business. A collapsed lung ended his crew ambitions but helped spark his interest in CBD-infused athletic recovery beverages. Nguyen entered the Be Your Own Boss Bowl business plan competition at Fox, and although he didn’t win, La Colombe expressed interest in his concept. That was

encouragement enough for Nguyen to start doing pop-ups selling CBD-infused cold brew as a side hustle. When he was laid off from his auditing job in 2023, coffee called to him. He launched The Coffee Connoisseur Club with the intention of elevating coffee from a commodity to a “culmination of culture and palate.” His quest for superior coffee strains led him back to Vietnam. “The coffee farms in Vietnam are my family,” Nguyen says. CCC sources and roasts beans from small, shadegrown operations. “Farmers sell me coffee, and I give them money,” he says simply, but tech-savvy Nguyen also helps farmers employ technology for better growing practices. He approaches coffee sourcing like a sommelier with fine wine, identifying varieties and terroir. “I go back to the roots, analyze the soil and observe what the farm grows coffee around. (Coffee beans) pick up flavor from the attributes of the soil and what grows around it.” P HOTOS BY TRACIE VAN AUKEN

JAPANESE FLASH BREW Nguyen’s favorite year-round version of pour-over coffee — Yields 2-3 servings —

It is a cold beverage, but not a cold brew. This method allows you to extract the flavors you would release when brewing hot coffee, but makes the flavors less volatile during consumption. The point is to shock the coffee with ice upon extraction, stabilizing flavors that you can only extract with hot water. Nguyen typically uses a beaker or serving cup. 1.4 ounces light-roasted coffee, pour over grind, ground to a sandlike texture 9 ounces ice 12 ounces hot water • • •

•

Nguyen finds his farmers through “boots-on-the-ground” exploration and “random conversations with random people” who point him to the best farmers in their region. He sees these relationships as much more than the pieces of a supply chain. This is knowledge transfer with the goal of improving the product, its profitability for the farmer, and the enjoyment of coffee for the discerning consumer. CCC may benefit from what some observers recognize as the “third wave” of coffee, evolving from a cheap commodity beverage to the elevated versions found commonly at Starbucks, and now on to something even more refined. Nguyen believes the future of

I go back to the roots, analyze the soil and observe what the farm grows coffee around.” joseph nguyen coffee is already here. “People are revolting against just a Starbucks cup and are going to craft coffee that doesn’t need milk and sugar to taste good. The next steps involve furthering the innovation of extraction and the bean itself.”

Start with 9 ounces of ice in the beaker. Add 1.4 ounces of ground coffee to the filter. Pour about 3 ounces of water over the grounds to bloom the coffee flavor. Then, gradually pour the remaining water in 1.5-ounce increments over four to five pours.

Nguyen’s aspirations don’t end with The Coffee Connoisseurship Club. Unlike most subscription-based businesses, he is more concerned with impact and scale than with numbers. “Within 10 to 20 years, I want to open up a library for coffee beans — 1,000 strains under one roof from around the world, with different growing practices.” In the meantime, Nguyen keeps his eye on what’s ahead. He aims to be “1% better every day,” working to affect nothing less than positive global change for agriculture and farmers. Coffee drinkers can join him through more mindful coffee enjoyment. As Nguyen says, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” ◆ JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HILLY.COM 7

immigration

A Place of Refuge Asylum Pride House welcomes LGBTQ+ immigrants

ithin days of a police raid in the home he shared with his parents in Krasnodar, southern Russia, Ilia Chernov, 26, a computer programmer and system administrator, went into hiding. Over five years, “I was subjected to repeated questioning, threats, police surveillance and house searches due to my political views and activism,” says Chernov. A vocal critic

by constance garcia-barrio

of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a member of the Navalny Headquarters — a progressive group fighting for the release of the late activist Alexei Navalny, who died in prison under unclear circumstances — Chernov faced possible arrest. Now, thanks to housing and services provided by Asylum Pride House (APH), Chernov has begun a new life in West Philly. Now, neither his politics nor his gender identity

Ilia Chernov has found refuge at Asylum Pride House.

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puts him at risk. “I am nonbinary,” he says. LGBTQ+ citizens in Russia risk persecution “for their mere existences,” says the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the U.S. “Russian law prohibits demonstrations or [distributing] information about LGBTQIA+ people,” Chernov said. In August 2023, Chernov escaped into neighboring Belarus. From there, he flew to Dubai, then on to Mexico, where he spent eight months waiting for an appointment with U.S. Immigration. At the San Ysidro-Tijuana border, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him. More than a year passed before Chernov reached Philadelphia to start a new life with the help of Asylum Pride House (APH). “We support LGBTQIA+ asylum-seeking immigrants through free housing and case management,” says Victoria Sirois, president of APH, a nonprofit she founded in 2022. APH, which accommodates six residents at a time, always has a waitlist. Given the repressive laws in many nations, that comes as no surprise. Sixty-seven countries have laws criminalizing same-sex relationships, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York City-based nonprofit that exposes human rights abuses around the world. In 12 of those countries, including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, same-sex consensual intimacy is punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In many nations, LGBTQ+ citizens live with constant fear. A July 2024 report by the Women’s Refugee Committee identified Mexico as “a particularly harrowing place” for LGBTQ+ individuals. “Violence against LGBTQIA individuals is pervasive in Mexico. And transgender women, in particular, face grave danger,” the report said. Looming peril leads some individuals to flee their homeland. A 2022 report from the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California School of Law that researches sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, found that the majority of LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum P HOTOS BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

in the U.S. came from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, which have all seen declines in the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Chernov had eluded Russian police, but his case with ICE dragged on. ICE transferred him from San Diego to a Mississippi detention facility for three months. From there, he was sent to the Winn Correctional Center, a men’s medium-security prison in Winnfield, Louisiana, to await the hearing about his petition for asylum. It took a year. “Conditions at the detention center were very bad,” Chernov says. “It was cold because the air conditioning was always on full blast. Some of the food could make you sick and sometimes there wasn’t enough. Water flowed yellow out of the taps. There were two showers and two toilets for 50 men.” Staff from the American Immigration Council (AIC) helped Chernov get ready for court, but he had already managed to do much of the work on his own. “At the detention center everything is designed to prevent people from preparing for court on their own,” he said. “However, the AIC approved my work and helped me find a representative for my court case.” The judge granted Chernov asylee status. AIC, which partners with Asylum Pride House, referred him there upon his release in July 2025. Chernov endured a 44-hour bus ride from Shreveport to Philadelphia. “I was extremely tired when I arrived,” he recalls. “Finally, [at APH], I was able to sleep on a soft mattress in silence.” When residents first arrive, Sirois says, “since most people have traveled long distances or left terrible places, or both, they need to decompress to feel that they have started a new life.” APH has hosted residents from 20 countries since it began accepting them in September 2023. Residents speak English, Spanish, Uzbek and other languages. “They live in an apartment and are assigned to one of five lockable bedrooms. They have access to bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and workstations. APH also provides essentials like grocery cards, clothing, travel passes and hygiene kits,” Sirois says. There are plans to purchase a new space in 2026 and double the housing capacity to 10 to 11 residents in 2027. Most residents stay from six months to a year. They must participate in APH’s individualized case management that prepares them for independent living. “It’s a holistic program that includes medical clinics, legal support, career development, work permits

Finally, [at APH], I was able to sleep on a soft mattress in silence.” ilia chernov and ESL classes,” says APH social worker Louisa Benatovich. In some cases, residents need attention for medical conditions exacerbated by travel or conditions in detention centers. “If they have been trafficked or suffered other trauma, they receive counseling for their emotional health,” Benatovich says. Residents’ backgrounds and the training they seek vary. “Some arrive with degrees in filmmaking and other fields, while others seek training in marketing, culinary skills, hairdressing, programming, legal matters and English,” Sirois says. Chernov had a head start with English. “I began learning English at the detention center, but now I have my own books,” he says. “I also needed a work permit, a Social Security card and a driver’s license. They also help me prepare for a new life by explaining housing and work possibilities,” says Chernov, who would like to get a job as a system administrator. A range of activities go beyond the basics, helping residents familiarize themselves with the city, build community and trust, and have fun. “We have nutrition and cooking classes, yoga, dance classes, as well as workshops on budgeting,” Sirois says. “Healing-centered outings include trips to the zoo, the art museum, pottery classes and the Clark Park

Farmers Market.” Volunteers, and now interns, allow APH to broaden its program. “I was eager to work with LGBTQ asylum seekers,” says Nicole Ru, a medical student at Drexel University. Internships began this year, but APH has always had volunteers. “We planned a lot of health and well-being events, including a health fair and a trip to the Mazzoni Center, a comprehensive LBGTQ health and wellness center.” Five months into his APH stay, Chernov sometimes finds himself champing at the bit. “Obtaining documents turned out to be much slower and more complicated than I expected,” he says. “I am also a little upset by the unexpectedly high housing prices.” He is reworking the personal budget he’ll follow when he leaves APH to factor in the higher cost. Now, Chernov brims with optimism. “The energy of the city gives me hope,” he says. “There are so many friendly people. I am … very impressed by the natural beauty combined with the city’s architecture. There are enormous opportunities [here] for growth and fulfillment.” ◆ Asylum Pride House, funded by foundations and individual donors, welcomes volunteers and donations. For details, visit asylumpridehouse.org JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP H ILLY.COM 9

recycling

Mixed Bag Philadelphia takes on companies over alleged deceptive plastic recycling claims by ben seal This story was originally published by The New Lede.

hen philadelphia filed a lawsuit in September 2025 alleging two prominent companies were engaged in a “coor�dinated campaign of deception” regarding the recyclability of their plastic film products, the City joined a growing group of state and local governments hoping litigation can help stem a rising tide of plastic waste. Public officials in New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, California, Baltimore and Los Angeles have over the last three years lodged complaints against several companies that act as powerful links in the chain of plastic production, including ExxonMobil, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Walmart and Reynolds Consumer Products. The lawsuits are each distinct, but they all allege the defendants misled the public about the efficacy of recycling in order to continue profiting off the production and sale of plastic. California accused ExxonMobil of encouraging the excessive use of plastic, contributing to the state’s billion-dollar annual cost for plastic waste management. New York, meanwhile, alleged that PepsiCo’s single-use plastics pollute the Buffalo River, contaminating drinking water and harming wildlife. Roughly 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide each year, according to the United Nations, and only about 10% gets recycled. Plastic pollution poses a threat to human and animal health as well as vital ecosystems, the UN states. Philadelphia’s complaint, filed Sept. 24, 2025 against Bimbo Bakeries and SC Johnson, claims that the companies misled consumers by suggesting their plastic film products — bread bags and Ziploc, respectively — could be recycled. 10 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

has propped up sham solutions.” And a judge dismissed key elements in Baltimore’s suit against PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay because the city failed to demonstrate harm to consumers or itself. Still, environmental advocates and legal experts have high hopes for Philadelphia’s lawsuit and said it may offer a blueprint for how municipalities and states can directly link plastic producers to the harms caused by plastic waste and pollution. The complaint takes aim at Bimbo and SC Johnson’s marketing for steering consumers toward designated drop-off boxes found at various retailers where their plastic film products could purportedly be recycled. But those boxes are nothing more than “trash cans in disguise,” the complaint alleges, citing a range of recent reporting that has revealed such plastics rarely get recycled.

They have capitalized on this confusion to take advantage of consumers, and we in Philadelphia want this to stop.” cherriel gentle s, Philadelphia Law Department

Cherriel Gentles says it is time for plastic bag companies to pay for claiming their products are recyclable.

“They have capitalized on this confusion to take advantage of consumers, and we in Philadelphia want this to stop,” said Cherriel Gentles, a senior attorney for the City. “They cannot operate in this manner to continue to fleece consumers.” P HOTO BY C H R IS BA K ER EV E N S

Nationwide, the litigation has yet to find much success. A judge tossed out New York’s lawsuit for “seek[ing] to impose punishment while searching for a crime.” ExxonMobil has countersued California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his claim that “the company

It also describes how that alleged deception stymies the city’s effort to recycle legitimate materials like paper, cardboard and aluminum. Because consumers have been led to believe plastic film is recyclable, the complaint says, they place it in the city’s curbside bins, leaving recycling professionals with “a daunting and expensive task.” First, they must tangle with plastic film that jams machinery, raising operating costs and endangering workers. Second, they must mitigate the contamination caused by plastic film — the primary contaminant in the recycling system, in part because of its use for food storage — to have any hope the JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HILLY.COM 1 1

recycling

city’s materials can be sold and recycled. By detailing the direct impact of the companies’ alleged deception on the municipal recycling system, the lawsuit aims to accomplish something its predecessors have struggled to manage, according to Jan Dell, the founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, a nonprofit focused on ending plastic pollution. It clarifies the harm to both residents and the city in a way that has often seemed more nebulous in other settings, Dell said. “I hope this is a model,” she said. Philadelphia’s lawsuit “sews together what’s been happening over the past five years,” Dell said, by confronting what she calls “the store drop-off myth.” Multiple reports have used trackers to show that bags placed in drop-off containers rarely make it anywhere but the landfill. As Philadelphia’s complaint outlines, the defendants’ packaging uses standardized How2Recycle labeling to encourage consumers to deliver their plastic film to store drop-off sites, despite the fact that low-density polyethylene film — identified by the #4 resin ID code inside the familiar “chasing arrows” symbol — is not recyclable in Philadelphia, nor “almost anywhere in the United States.” Only 8% of Americans understand that a resin ID code does not guarantee a product’s recyclability, the lawsuit states, and 91% believe that as long as a product is “technically recyclable” they can place it in their curbside bins to recycle it. The result is consumers going out of their way to place bags in store drop-off containers, or putting them in curbside bins despite the fact they cannot actually be recycled. The defendants are aware that their products are only “theoretically recyclable,” the complaint alleges, citing a comment from Pamela Oksiuta, SC Johnson’s senior director of global sustainability, who said at a 2018 industry event that there is no significant end market for reprocessed plastic film because “it is perceived as inefficient and unprofitable.” The company’s CEO recently told the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that the cost of recycled plastic is “significantly higher” than virgin plastic, stacking the deck in favor of producing new plastic rather than recycling. “It’s an arduous process to even try to re12 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

cycle this stuff,” said Logan Welde, a senior attorney with the environmental nonprofit Clean Air Council who helped get Philadelphia to pass a plastic bag ban in 2019. “No company is going to do it when there’s no money in it. It’s a sham.” Given the various obstacles, just 0.2% of Ziploc bags are collected for recycling, SC Johnson’s Oksiuta acknowledged at the 2018 event. The company even identified plastic film as nonrecyclable in a 2024 Instagram post, despite continuing to suggest otherwise on its packaging. Neither Bimbo nor SC Johnson responded to requests for comment on the litigation and neither has yet filed a response in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. A representative for the American Chemistry Council, a plastic industry association, de-

the laws, then municipalities and cities have to step up.” Peter Blair, a policy and advocacy director at Just Zero, a nonprofit working toward zero-waste solutions, said previous plastic pollution lawsuits have focused on concerns about consumer choice or far-reaching claims that often lead to a “dead end” in the courts. “A lot of us very much want the plastic lawsuits to follow the same direction that we saw with tobacco lawsuits or the opiate lawsuits,” Blair said. “We’re dealing with a very different type of problem, though, where the harms aren’t as direct. This [complaint] does a very good job of getting around that legal hurdle.” The timing of the complaint is notable, Blair said. An eight-day strike by Philadel-

The reason you’re paying so much [for recycling] is because these companies are lying. You’re trying to do the right thing and it’s gumming up the works.” peter blair, Just Zero

clined to comment on the spate of lawsuits against plastic producers. Philadelphia’s lawsuit is the first under a consumer protection ordinance enacted in June 2024 that deems illegal any misrepresentation about the characteristics of a good or service. Along with seeking monetary damages, the complaint seeks a declaratory judgment finding the defendants’ marketing to be unlawful, as well as an injunction ordering it to be revised to address any public misunderstanding. The city is also asking for the disgorgement of any profits related to the alleged deceptive marketing. Gentles, the City attorney, said the lack of accountability at the national level puts the onus on Philadelphia and others to protect their residents. “There is no enforcement at the national level,” Gentles said. “If they’re not enforcing

phia’s sanitation workers this July left waste piling up around the city, shining a spotlight on what happens when the waste management system is broken. “In many ways, this lawsuit is pointing out that it is broken behind the curtain as well,” Blair said. “It’s just hidden from you … The reason you’re paying so much [for recycling] is because these companies are lying. You’re trying to do the right thing and it’s gumming up the works.” Gentles said this lawsuit is “absolutely just the start” of Philadelphia’s effort to address the plastic waste crisis and its impact on residents and municipal operations. “People want to do good,” she said. “They want to contribute to making the environment a better place and they really do try, but it’s so confusing. We’re trying to cut through some of that.” ◆

Pay Less to Warm Up PECO gives a discount to customers heating with electric

hiladelphia’s weather is downright tropical in the summer, but that can be hard to remember in January as residents crank up the heat and dread the monthly heating bills. PECO’s residential heating rate takes out some of the sting for households that heat with electric power. PECO’s “RH” rate, as they label it, “is designed for customers who heat their homes with electric systems, such as electric baseboards, electric furnaces, or heat pumps,” according to a PECO spokesperson who wrote to Grid. The rate, which applies from October through June, reduces the distribution charge by about 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, so that a customer using 1,000 kWh per month would save about $23 per month. Joline Price, an attorney at Community Legal Services, works with clients to get their utility bills down. She finds that the residential heating rate can help clients who earn too much money to qualify for other savings. “We serve households up to 200% of the federal poverty level, and PECO’s low-income pro-

story by bernard brown

We serve households up to 200% of the federal poverty level, and PECO’s low-income program caps out at 150% of the federal poverty level.” joline price , Community Legal Services

gram caps out at 150% of the federal poverty level. So when someone is in between, and using electricity for heating, they’ll save money when they go on the residential heating rate.” PECO says that it works to identify eligible households when they move in and sign up for electricity and during home energy audits the utility conducts through its Low-Income Energy Usage Reduction Program. Customers can otherwise sign up for the rate by contacting PECO. They will need to provide the make and model of their heating system, submit a copy of a lease indicating that the rental unit is electrically heated, or have a PECO technician come out to verify the electric heating system.

Price says the documentation requirements can pose a burden for low-income households. “They don’t make it easy,” she says. Price also pointed out important differences between how the rate applies to customers with baseboard heating, which must be the sole heating system to qualify for the RH, versus heat pumps, which have to be the primary but not the only system. “You can surmise that there’s a class difference and we think that’s problematic.” And the rate doesn’t apply at all for households using only space heaters. “People are using space heaters because they don’t have another option, because their boiler or furnace is broken or their gas has been cut off.” ◆ JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 13

education

Books Through Bars starts with requests mailed in from prisoners who can’t find what they want to read in under-resourced prison libraries.

The More You Know West Philly nonprofit combats recidivism rates with literature story and photos by adam litchkofski

he streetlights lining Baltimore Avenue have been aglow for nearly two hours when Books Through Bars begins to bustle. Volunteers, stepping in from the stony November cold, come to support an often overlooked cause: providing reading material to people in prison. Incarcerated individuals often have little to read, and the range of books provided to them tends to be narrow, due to under-funded prison libraries and censorship. The aim of Books Through Bars is to counteract the status quo of prison libraries by making reading more accessible to those incarcerated across Pennsylvania and beyond. “Unfortunately, prison libraries and school systems always have their budgets cut, so they have less services to offer people that are 14 GRID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 2026

incarcerated — this is where we come in and fill the gap,” says Tom Haney, who has spent a lifetime working with incarcerated people as a counselor and now as the president of Books Through Bars. Typically, an incarcerated person will send a letter to Books Through Bars (BTB), requesting reading material of a specific book, topic or genre. In turn, volunteers comb through BTB’s library and mail back books that fit the request to the best of their abilities. Those incarcerated can send a new request once every three months. In 2025, BTB received over 8,200 requests, the highest total since 2016. Dictionaries, according to Haney, are the most requested item. The recipients of BTB’s packages don’t understate the impact of having access to books. In an anonymous letter to BTB, one

wrote, “Fighting cancer in prison is hard. It is hard anywhere. I could have had the books delivered to the ward, but I made a point of getting up, getting dressed, and walking down to the treatment area to pick the books up. Just that limited activity gave me a purpose that day. It was sort of like Christmas morning.” BTB’s biggest expenditure is shipping. Pennsylvania state prisons use FedEx as a carrier instead of taking advantage of their own fleet of vehicles that already transports items between prisons throughout the state, Haney explains as he stashes away books from a recent donation. This makes it far more expensive to ship books than it would be with a different carrier. They also frequently run into administrative and bureaucratic roadblocks. Each prison has its own rules for what can and cannot enter the facility — even books. Prison officials ban books due to security concerns. However, Keri Blankinger, writing for the Marshall Project, says that books banned by prisons feature content that officials object to. She mentions that “Internet for Dummies”

Reading helped Michael “Smokey” Wilson (left) prepare for life after prison.

Over 90% of incarcerated people are going to be released one day and come back to our communities. How do you want them to come back? How do you want them to fit in our communities and our society?” tom haney, Books Through Bars was banned in Michigan due to it being a “threat to the order and security of the institution,” while “Mein Kampf” is banned by only seven states out of the 18 that publicly shared their banned book lists with The Marshall Project. Popular reads like the “Harry Potter” series, Stephen King novels, and even “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” are banned in prisons. Hardcovers are often restricted due to physical safety concerns as well, making law books and textbooks far more difficult to get into the hands of incarcerated people. “Our main goal is to help people on the inside self-educate themselves,” Haney says. “Many studies over the years have shown that people who are incarcerated, who do educate themselves in one way or another, come out in a far better position to live here on the street than how they did before they were incarcerated.” A 2025 report by the American Library Association found that 68% of people incarcerated in state prisons don’t have a high

school diploma, and the literacy skills of the incarcerated population in America are far below that of the general public. The same report, however, found that “incarcerated people who completed GEDs while incarcerated in Indiana had a 20% lower rate of recidivism, while those who received college degrees were 44% less likely to return to prison.” The report also highlighted the lack of funding that keeps many prison libraries from meeting prisoners’ needs. “Despite their value, prison libraries in the U.S. are widely under-resourced with vast disparities across facilities…” Michael “Smokey” Wilson grew familiar with the lack of funding in prison libraries and the importance of education while incarcerated. Wilson, who grew up in Philadelphia’s foster care system, was 17 when he went to prison. He then spent 46 years behind bars in various Pennsylvania state correctional institutions. Between boxing and attaining a college degree, Wilson spent his time in prison learning and growing for when

the moment came for him to re-enter society. “You have to find something to do — being stationary for that long made me pick up books and read,” he says. “Studying is perseverance. Coming back out here into the larger community is the test. You have to believe in it and be patient. That’s what education did for me.” Since his re-entry in 2017, Wilson has spent his time coaching boxing, volunteering at the Beckett Life Center in North Philadelphia and advocating for juvenile prison reform. “Over 90% of incarcerated people are going to be released one day and come back to our communities,” said Haney. “How do you want them to come back? How do you want them to fit in our communities and our society?” On a federal legislative level, the Prison Libraries Act was introduced to the House of Representatives in 2023. If passed, the act would have created a federal grant to establish and fund prison libraries. Despite having 45 co-sponsors, the bill died in committee. Grassroots causes, like Books Through Bars, remain a predominant way to support the educational growth of incarcerated people. When discussing the need for accessible education in prison, Wilson quotes Malcolm X: “‘Education is the passport to the future,’” he says, “‘for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.’” ◆ Book donations can be made at booksthroughbars.org/donate-books. JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 5

composting

Soil Mix Bennett Compost and Circle Compost join forces

by julia lowe

Tim Bennett and David Bloovman are merging their compost companies.

or nearly a decade, Philadelphians looking to begin their composting journeys have looked to one of two options for private compost pick-up services — Bennett and Circle Compost. But now, customers won’t have to choose at all. Bennett Compost announced its acquisition of Circle Compost in an email to customers on Dec. 12, with the merger officially taking effect in 2026. Tim Bennett founded Bennett Compost 16 GRID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 2026

in 2009, and the company now diverts 200 tons of waste from landfills each month, serving 6,500 households and 150 businesses with their compost pickup services. Circle Compost was founded by David Bloovman and his wife Michele in 2016. “When we launched, we launched at the exact same price that [Bennett] had,” says Bloovman. “At the time, they were $15 a month for a five gallon bucket emptied weekly. And I told him, ‘I didn’t do this so that we could go out there and be 14 bucks.’

We just wanted to give another option.” Nine years later, Circle composts more than 25 tons of food scraps every month from over 2,500 customers, 55 of those commercial. The merger came after Bloovman approached Bennett with the idea to join forces. Continuing to grow Circle’s commercial business in a meaningful way, Bloovman said, would have been very challenging to do with Bennett as a competitor. Bloovman says he was never interested in selling Circle to a third-party company. P HOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

“If we did that, you’d still have two different companies going down that same block for those different buckets. I was not interested in that. So I didn’t talk to any other potential buyer,” says Bloovman. “For us, it’s incredibly important that we try to keep the composting scene here local,” says Tim Bennett, founder of Bennett Compost. So what changes can current Circle Compost customers expect? For the first six months, nothing should noticeably change for household routes or service. But long term, Bennett and Bloovman say some customers may see their pickup routes adjusted to reduce the overall mileage of vehicles collecting compost buckets. “We already, all the time, see Circle buckets next to Bennett buckets on the same block,” says Bloovman. “So we obviously want to take advantage of those efficiencies and have one route going down that block for both customers, as opposed to two separate routes.”

We’re doing this because we think it’s an opportunity to make everyone stronger.” tim bennett, Bennett Compost

One change that Circle customers will be able to take advantage of right away is access to Bennett’s range of retail soil products. The 20% discount that Bennett offers to customers on all of their bagged soil products will now be expanded to Circle customers as well. Bloovman says that becoming part of Bennett also allows more opportunities for advancement for Circle’s current employees, who will all be offered positions at their current pay at Bennett in the merger, including Bloovman himself, bringing the combined team to a total of 40 employees.

4828 Baltimore ave.

Bennett also looks forward to the new ideas that might come out of the merger, and how they can collaboratively respond to changes in the industry. He also says he hopes to continue expanding their compost processing capacity and experimenting with different models. “We’re doing this because we think it’s an opportunity to make everyone stronger,” Bennett says. ◆ grid publisher Alex Mulcahy is a co-owner of Bennett Compost.

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circular economy

Cleaning the Dirt Eco Materials Passyunk Wash Plant gives contaminated soil a second life story by daniel sean kaye 18 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

o d e r n c o n st ruc t i o n i s notorious for producing waste. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the amount of used soil abandoned to landfills. What’s needed is a cost-effective, environmentally responsible solution that keeps material in circulation and preserves its value. “Every day, thousands of tons of soil come off construction sites in and around Philadelphia. Most of it gets hauled long distances and dumped, even though a lot of it

could be cleaned, sorted and reused,” says Andrew Paluszkiewicz, managing partner and director of operations for Eco Materials Passyunk Wash Plant, a company he founded in 2022 with partner Ken Griffin to provide a sustainable solution for the disposal of construction and excavation waste. The company remediates soil — a mix of sand, stone, water, air, organic matter, and minerals — from construction and redevelopment sites that have been tested for a wide range of potential contaminants, including P HOTOS BY AL BERT YEE

Eco Materials processes contaminated soil to produce sand, gravel and other materials that can go back into construction.

Every day, thousands of tons of soil come off construction sites in and around Philadelphia. Most of it gets hauled long distances and dumped, even though a lot of it could be cleaned, sorted and reused.” andrew paluszkiewic z, Eco Materials Passyunk Wash Plant

heavy metals, petroleum-related compounds (VOCs and SVOCs), pesticides and PCBs. Contaminated soil is loaded into a machine that screens and sorts it, removing unwanted debris and crushing anything over 4 inches. A combination of high-pressure washing and agitation breaks up the soil and separates sand and stone from clay, silt and contaminants. A series of screens sorts the usable sand and stone by size and weight, which the company sells. It does not sell the clay and silt. To Paluszkiewicz and Griffin, this was

an opportunity to merge sustainability with real-world construction operations while reducing the carbon footprint associated with hauling and disposal, saving contractors money on tipping fees, trucking and material purchases. However, since theirs would be one of only six soil-wash plants in North America — and only the second to recycle contaminated soils — there wasn’t a clear playbook for how to build it. “Between navigating environmental regulations, building the right testing protocols, and designing a site that could efficiently handle, wash and separate materials, it took a lot of coordination,” says Griffin. They had to build relationships with regulators, engineers and contractors to ensure the design was safe and sized appropriately for the Philadelphia market. “This facility represents the future of construction, where sustainability and profitability go hand in hand,” says Leo Addi-

mando, co-founder and managing partner of Alterra IOS, a company that helped plan and build the facility. “We’re transforming dirty soil into clean, reusable material on site, and we’re doing it by cutting costs, reducing emissions and keeping the entire process local.” Brandywine Stormwater LLC, a builder of stormwater systems, has been a customer of Eco Materials since August 2025. Justin Keenan, chief executive officer of Brandywine Stormwater, said Eco Materials provides the company with recycled stone derived from fill dirt, helping it complete projects while meeting its sustainability goals. Eco Materials’ intent is to make resource recovery the “new normal” for construction. “We’re already seeing interest from municipalities and developers who want to include circular material management in building cleaner, smarter sustainability plans,” says Paluszkiewicz. ◆ JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 9

cycling

Slow Down, Trailblazers New Jersey e-bike regulations to be tightened as concerns grow over use in recreational areas story and photos by ed rodgers

eff strahley, of Red Bank, New Jersey, spent an early November afternoon riding along the Delaware Canal towpath near Washington Crossing Park in Bucks County. He has mixed feelings about the increased e-bike presence on the popular trail. “There’s good and bad. The good is it gets more people out on the trails that might be restricted, healthwise or injury-wise,” Strahley says. “But there’s a lot of people abusing the e-bikes 20 GRID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 2026

where they have high-powered, super fast e-bikes where people are walking or walking their dogs.” Cyclists often ride along the Delaware Canal or the Delaware and Raritan (D&R) Canal State Park towpath that’s across the Delaware River in New Jersey. Many of them walk their bikes over the Washington Crossing, Lambertville or Frenchtown bridges to ride a looped trail that lets them enjoy both towpaths.

On the New Jersey side, Division of Parks and Recreation officials are currently developing a policy that will outline guidelines for e-bike use on state park lands based on the three e-bike classifications. Class 1 e-bikes provide only pedal-assist power and Class 2 provide pedal assist as well as a throttle. Both Class 1 and Class 2 bikes can reach top speeds of 20 mph, compared with Class 3 e-bikes, which can reach speeds as high as 28 mph. A parks system media rep-

There’s no need to be going 30 miles per hour on a walking path.” ed smith, cyclist

E-bikes are here to stay, and state parks are still figuring out how they can best share the trail.

resentative told Grid that only Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes are currently permitted on trails such as the D&R Canal towpath. There are no posted speed limits on the 70-mile-long towpath, but park officials recommend a 15 mph speed limit. The same representative also said the New Jersey State Park Police have no records of any incidents in which an e-bike operator has been cited or fined for improper use. Ed Smith, of Langhorne, says he hasn’t personally had any conflicts with e-bike riders when he’s pedaling on the towpath but agrees speed limits are necessary. “There’s no need to be going 30 miles per hour on a walking path.” Smith also raised concerns about possible surface impacts on the gravel

trails from heavier e-bikes. On the Pennsylvania side, according to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) deputy communications director Madalyn Neff, “DCNR recorded seven medical incidents and ambulance transports involving e-bike users in state parks in 2024 and 11 in 2025.” Neff also said PennDOT figures show that in 2024 there were 345 crashes involving e-bikes, out of 1,271 crashes involving bicycles on Pennsylvania roadways. DCNR has already set a 20 mph speed limit for e-bike use in Pennsylvania’s state parks, along with a 100-pound weight limit. The department also posts e-bike guidelines along bike trails. Roy Weaver, of Tinicum Township in Bucks County, rides his Class 1 e-bike along the two towpaths, and says he’s come across heavier e-bikes that may be inappropriate for the trail. “Now, they are not really a bicycle. They are electric motor bikes,” Weaver said. New Jersey lawmakers are moving to

tighten regulations for e-bike use across the state following two fatal crashes in September involving teenagers. A bill sponsored by state Senate President Nicholas Scutari would update 2019 regulations, creating a Class 4 category for e-bikes that exceed 28 mph or 750 watts. The bill would require Class 2, Class 3 and Class 4 e-bikes to have insurance and registrations and would require their operators to obtain an e-bike license. Anyone under 17 years old would only be permitted to operate Class 1 e-bikes. Bruce Fletcher, of Ewing Township, New Jersey, rides his Class 2 e-bike along the D&R Canal, and opposes the legislation because it could discourage people from using an environmentally clean form of transportation that provides access to outdoor areas. “This is not right. They’re hurting everybody just for people who disobey the law,” Fletcher said. He believes more enforcement of existing laws is needed. “They’ve got to start cracking down.” ◆ JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HILLY.COM 21

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200

issue two-hundred

Our prototype which was produced in 2008. •

CHANGE AGENTS “Nothing’s quite as sure as change,” goes an old song by The Mamas & the Papas. Change, though certain, is hard to predict. Things sometimes go the way you want them to, other times the opposite direction, and often somewhere in between. ¶ Here in our 200th issue, we look back at some of the stories we published in our initial issue, and reflect on the progress the sustainability movement has made and the ground that’s been lost. ¶ While it can be illuminating to review the past, it’s important to remember that the future remains unwritten. It’s up to us to imagine the world that will exist, heaven help us, over the next 200 issues of Grid.

P ROTOT Y P E COVER IL LUSTRATI O N BY D E W E Y SAU N D E RS

JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 23

200

issue two-hundred

• Delaware Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum says that further dredging of the river will have devastating effects.

Dredging Up the Past How deep is too deep for the Delaware River? — BY SARAH RUIZ

elaware Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum always knew 45 feet was a stopping point on the way down to 50. As head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, she led a three-decade battle against the Port of Philadelphia’s plan to deepen the Delaware River’s main shipping channel. Despite environmental concerns and a lengthy lawsuit, the project went ahead. The river’s new 45foot depth was cemented in 2021 when the final few inches of bedrock were gouged away. But not even bedrock is set in stone. In October 2024, the port signaled its intent to deepen the river by another five feet. “I said throughout that as soon as they got permission to go to 45, they would very quickly pivot to try to get to 50,” says van Rossum. The “announcement,” appearing on page 46 of the port’s 60-page strategic plan, activated van Rossum’s alarm bells. Now, she is preparing the Riverkeeper Network for another fight. The same concerns about drinking water contamination and species preservation that plagued the 45-foot project remain just as relevant today, and the new project has broached an old question: How should we shape the future of the Delaware River?

A river shaped by industry The Delaware River has been used for transportation and commerce since the time of the Lenape. Despite its status as the longest undammed river on the East Coast, the Delaware has been dramatically altered by industry since colonization. Between 1898

and today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has deepened the floor of the main shipping channel by 25 feet over multiple dredging projects to accommodate larger ships — some as large as four football fields in length. The Port of Philadelphia’s (PhilaPort) strategic plan lays out a multi-phase vision for the next 15 years of commerce on the river — a vision that stresses the need to remain competitive. “A 50-foot channel would allow PhilaPort to accommodate larger vessels and compete with peer-ports for traffic in high volume trade-lanes,” the plan states. The port estimates that this, along with other infrastructure improvements detailed in the report, will generate $2.84 billion in new business revenue and $170 million in state and local taxes by 2040. Proponents of the original 45-foot project similarly claimed deepening was a competitive imperative, and that the estimated $13 million of annual benefit outweighed the price tag, which grew to $480 million as the project progressed. Two thirds of that bill was footed by the federal government. Ryan Mulvey, director of government and public affairs at PhilaPort, says the port is already seeing an economic difference from the deepening. “We are setting records year-over-year on our container growth as well as new auto imports,” says Mulvey. USACE also conducted four comprehensive environmental impact assessments of the 45-foot project in 1997, 2009, 2011 and 2013.

When we make the river and its protection the top priority in all government decision making, that’s when we best protect our people.”

Saltwater contamination of the water supply was a chief concern evaluated in these reports. The Delaware River is an estuary, where salty ocean water and fresh river water meet. The upstream edge of the salty portion of the river, known as the salt line, shifts up and down with the opposing forces of river and tide. A drinking water intake for Philadelphia is located well above the normal salt line, but reduced river flow or increased pressure from the ocean can push the salt upstream toward it. The closest the salt line has ever gotten to infiltrating the water supply was during the historic 1960s drought, when it stopped just eight miles south of the intake. Dredging, according to Robert Chant, a professor in Rutgers University’s Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, will make it worse. The river’s flow is limited, but the pressure of the sea is endless, so a deeper channel will fill with saltwater, pushing the salt line upstream. The 1997 USACE assessment modeled the impact of a 45-foot channel and determined that even in the extreme drought conditions of 1965, the salt line would have only moved 1.3 miles further upstream. Since it still fell short of the intake, USACE deemed the risk acceptable. A LOOK BACK « Notes from Publisher Alex Mulcahy When Samantha Drake reported on this in 2008, we listed the contaminants, including arsenic, copper, lead, mercury, zinc and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), that the act of dredging the Delaware River would stir up, as well as the need to dispose of the “spoils,” the 26 million cubic yards of contaminated sand, clay and silt the process would produce. This was a level of detail we felt was missing in existing media, and that rather than gloss over the issue as the “environmental concerns of advocates,” we would draw attention to the specifics of the impacts.

Maya k. van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper

24 GRID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

P HOTO BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

JAN UARY 20 26 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 25

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issue two-hundred

More dredging could deal a knockout blow to the Delaware River’s dwindled Atlantic sturgeon population.

A river changed by climate

A river for the fish The Delaware River estuary is home to hundreds of species of fish, mollusks, birds and aquatic plants. Many species are highly sensitive to changes in salinity and will either be pushed upstream with the salt line or simply become stressed and die. Of particular concern are the federally endangered Atlantic sturgeon, prehistoric-looking fish with bony plates along their backs and whisker-like protrusions hanging off their elongated snouts. Dwayne Fox, professor of fisheries at Delaware State University, says dredging is just one environmental insult that the species has borne in the last century. Overfishing, pollution and poor water quality have shrunk the population in the Delaware River to just 250 spawning adults. 26 GRID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 2026

In one dredging operation, they can basically do what climate change will take a couple hundred years to achieve.” Robert Chant, Rutgers University

The fish rely on safe freshwater habitat to spawn, which the upstream advance of the salt line threatens. Additionally, sturgeon like to hunt in the deeper, faster-flowing central channel, putting them in the path of oncoming ships. Atlantic sturgeon were listed as endangered in 2012, two years after a federal district court gave PhilaPort the green light to begin dredging. But since then, Fox says, sturgeon experts have seen very little movement to create and execute a species recovery plan for the Delaware. “I think the key is to get everybody in a room to start talking,” says Fox. “But here we are in 2025 and that still hasn’t happened.”

A river for the people Conversation, van Rossum says, was sorely lacking during the last dredging project — so much so that by the end of the fight, she was submitting weekly Freedom of Information Act requests to acquire public information that was otherwise not forthcoming. She is concerned this pattern will repeat itself if the 50-foot project gets underway. PhilaPort slots the deepening project into the second phase of their plan, which may not even begin for another decade, but Mulvey says the port is eager to start as soon as

possible. “If we were able to set aside some of the bureaucratic hurdles, and obviously the cost associated with these types of projects, we would want to start going to 50 feet tomorrow,” says Mulvey. The first hurdle, cleared in 2024, was securing authorization in the Water Resources Development Act to conduct a feasibility study, which would surface potential environmental and civil concerns. The port has yet to secure funding to undertake the study, however. Mulvey says PhilaPort is committed to transparency and invites community members looking for more information to attend the public sessions of the port’s board meetings, held on the third Monday of every month. Any formal pursuit of 50 feet will require the involvement and approval of agencies like the Delaware River Basin Commission, USACE and the Philadelphia Water Department. Van Rossum will be involved too, using her voice to ensure decision makers value not just economic benefit, but all the communities — human and nonhuman — that call the river home. “When we make the river and its protection the top priority in all government decision making, that’s when we best protect our people,” says van Rossum. ◆

M AU R O O R L A N D O

Chant says the impact of the 45-foot deepening project on the salt line may already be presenting itself. During a dry spell in November 2024, the salt line reached farther upstream than any year since the 1960s. October 2025 broke that record again. It will take at least another year of data to certify, but Chant suspects these two major saltwater intrusion events are the result of dredging. When comparing historical river flows to spikes in salt line movement, he says, “there were periods of longer low flows in the ‘70s or the ‘80s that didn’t produce the salt intrusion that we’re seeing today.” These signals are showing up against the backdrop of significant regional climate changes. According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, while the Northeast is generally getting wetter with climate change, precipitation is more often falling in extreme bursts, with extended dry days in between. Additionally, Philadelphia has experienced just over eight inches of sea level rise since 1992. Models from the U.S. Earth Information Center show it rising by another nine inches by 2050. Since rising seas will irrevocably advance the salt line, Chant questions pushing the river’s boundaries any further with dredging. “Even in the worst-case scenarios, we’re not going to see a five-foot sea level rise in 100 years,” says Chant. “In one dredging operation, they can basically do what climate change will take a couple hundred years to achieve.”

Still Energized The Energy Co-op’s executive director looks toward the future of renewables in a challenging political climate — BY JORDAN TEICHER

n September 2008, George W. Bush was president, the dominant fuel source for U.S. electricity generation was coal, and the Paris Agreement was seven years away. Much has changed in the commonwealth and the country since Grid spoke with The Energy Co-op for our first issue. Founded in 1979 by members of Weavers Way Food Co-op to lower heating costs through collective buying power, the member-owned nonprofit is smaller today than it was in 2008. It faces a more competitive renewable energy marketplace, and it operates under a federal administration that is openly hostile to climate action. The Energy Co-op executive director Divya Desai, who joined the organization in 2016, is clear-eyed about the challenges facing renewable energy at this moment. But she’s optimistic about the path ahead. Grid spoke with her about the nonprofit’s development over the last 17 years and its plans for the future. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. How does The Energy Co-op see its mission today? We’re more deeply committed to a renewable energy future. And I think that while that commitment hasn’t wavered, we’ve made some major changes in how we achieve our mission. We’ve gotten a lot more involved in policy and advocacy. This administration has given us the opportunity to talk more about why clean energy is so important and impress on the public and private spheres how critical of a role individuals and businesses play. The federal government, even state and local government, is not the only way to get things done. In 2008, The Energy Co-op was the only available supplier to offer 100% renewable energy from wind, solar, and hydroelectric sources in the area. Has the competitive landscape changed? The market has P HOTO BY C H R IS BA K ER EV E N S

The Energy Co-op’s Divya Desai still sees avenues to make progress for renewable energy.

changed dramatically. Today, The Energy Co-op operates as a sort of a boutique renewable energy supplier, and we operate in a very competitive market. Competitors are a dime a dozen. The challenge is that many of those are — to use the typical phrase — greenwashed. There are a lot of consumer trust issues with retail energy suppliers because of this. And then you layer into that aggressive and misleading tactics, like sending mail that seems like it’s like a bill from PECO. It makes operating in this space difficult. In 2008, the co-op had 6,500 members. What does membership look like now? The Energy Co-op membership has actually shrunk. We have about 4,500 members now. As renewable energy becomes more expensive, it’s harder for consumers to justify spending the money at the end of the day. We’re considered a premium product. The fact that we’ve shrunk makes it even more challenging because we aren’t operating at a threshold to take advantage of economies of scale to gain that true cooperative bulk buying power.

It is pretty bleak at the federal level right now for renewable energy progress. What gives you hope that things might change for the better? It’s a really awful environment. And it can feel like there’s no end in sight. But the fact of the matter is, administrations change and people turn over. Things can change overnight. We saw that, unfortunately, in these first 12 months. But they can also change in the opposite direction. And despite how awful the environment is now, there are avenues to make progress. The only way we will achieve the future that we’re looking for is to stay motivated. ◆ A LOOK BACK « Notes from Publisher Alex Mulcahy There was no real story about The Energy Co-op in 2008 — no anniversary that ended in a zero, no new products to report on. We just wanted to identify the pillars of the sustainability community and direct people’s attention to a great organization. Forty-six years after their launch, they continue to be a vital member of the community.

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Walnut and Chestnut streets now have parking protected bike lanes stretching from 63rd to 22nd Street, including a recently-protected section on the — Walnut Street bridge. Philly’s expanded bike lanes are a work in progress BY JULIA LOWE To continue east, riders can n 2008, Philadelphia had 205 miles protected bike lanes, protected infrastructure, follow an almost continuous route to the of bicycle lanes. By 2021, that had which is a great sign,” says David Talone, an Delaware River: From Walnut, take 22nd to expanded to nearly 300 miles of bike organizer with Philly Bike Action!. Market Street, then turn east and follow the lanes across the city. But most of Bike lanes that are protected with connewly painted bike lanes on the south and those, even today, are nothing more crete barriers or are separated from moveast sides of City Hall to 13th Street (though than a stripe of paint — and as John Boyle, ing traffic by parking are the safest, Talone cyclists have complained on Reddit that the research director for the Bicycle Coalition says. Still, the bike lanes on Spruce and Pine lanes are often blocked by parked police cars). points out, “paint isn’t protection.” streets, proposed in 2008, which kicked off These City Hall bike lanes are currently a piWith this growth in the city’s bike infrawhat Boyle calls a “pivot” for the city’s bike lot, with City legislation needed in the next structure, activists are focusing on quality infrastructure, are separated from traffic by six months to make the lanes permanent. over quantity, emphasizing the need for nothing but a few flex posts at intersections. The next available bike lane heading east protected lanes and targeting the city’s most For riders looking to make cross-town begins on Race Street at 8th Street, where a dangerous and highly-traveled corridors for trips using bike lanes, and to use protected rider can continue onto the Benjamin Franknew infrastructure and improvements. infrastructure as much as they can, the gaps lin Bridge or the Delaware River Trail, which “OTIS (Office of Transportation and are beginning to close, Boyle says. stretches to Penn Treaty Park in the north Infrastructure Systems) have started to acOne such gap is for those traveling from and Washington Avenue in the south. But tually take seriously the idea that we need West Philly into Center City and beyond. south of Race Street, Boyle says, Spruce and

A Growing Patchwork

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A LOOK BACK « Notes from Publisher Alex Mulcahy

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s Regional Bike Map Conventional bike lane Protected bike lane Buffered/painted line Shared lane (“sharrow”) Circuit trail Shared-use path (non-circuit) High-traffic roads « Map data from The Bicycle Coalition bicyclecoalition.org/resources/bike-maps/

Pine streets’ continuous bike lanes are most riders’ best bet for east-west trips. In South Philly, the Christian to Crescent segment of the Schuylkill River Trail, opened in May of 2025, has offered riders in Grays Ferry a new route to Center City and other parts of the city. This route is set to extend this year, with the soon-to-be completed swing bridge connecting the Grays Ferry trail to the Bartram’s Mile Trail across

the Schuylkill River. Much of Washington Avenue still has standard painted bike lanes, except for protected lanes on 11th to 4th streets, which are set to be extended east to connect to the Delaware River Trail. “I think the data that the city has shown already shows that it’s much safer to be on the east side than the west side. And it’ll be a continuing effort to complete that gap,” Boyle says.

Biking in Center City in 2008 felt like the urban equivalent of running with the bulls. Swerving from one lane to another, or between lanes, required a sense of invincibility. I now hew more closely to the advice we gave back then: wear a helmet and reflective gear, and put lights on your bike. Looking back at the map of bike lanes we published at that time, it’s encouraging to see how much infrastructure has been added. My daily commute from West Philly to Chinatown is greatly improved. Now let’s get those lanes protected!

For riders looking to make safe cross-town trips north or south, Talone recommends offroad routes like the Delaware River Trail and the Schuylkill River Trail, calling the latter “the gold standard.” But he adds that despite the safety of these trails, there are plenty of green spaces in the city where bicyclists are at risk, including Fairmount Park. “Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Avenue and Kelly Drive are all on the High Injury Network,” Talone says. “Our parks should be safe places for people that ride their bikes. They shouldn’t be afraid of getting run down by a car at a park.” Talone and his fellow organizers with Philly Bike Action! want to see the bike lanes expand to become more of a true network of bikeways. “Right now, we have a patchwork quilt,” he says. But if the city had the infrastructure in 2008 that it has now, Boyle says riders of the time would have been amazed. “There would be more of us around. I think we would have saved lots of lives.” ◆

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Frugal living and its many benefits — BY BETSY TEUTSCH

azel tov to Grid on issue #200, quite a feat for print journalism! Thanks for inviting me to update my article on frugal living from the magazine’s inaugural issue. Frugality is often associated with stinginess, not surprising in our hyperconsumerist culture. For me, with my longtime focus on greener living, being frugal is about efficient consumption and not thoughtlessly wasting material resources. When such an action

and help move us toward a zero-waste world. Think of all the options for buying and selling secondhand clothing, furniture, household equipment, toys and tools. The internet has brought us eBay, Poshmark, ThredUp, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace for exchanging stuff. For those who prefer free give-and-take, there are local Freecycle, Buy Nothing and Community Gifting groups, plus the ever-popular in-person clothing swaps. Consignment shops and thrift stores are now embraced

I applaud the many new strategies and infrastructures that facilitate frugal living and help move us toward a zero-waste world. also saves me money, I appreciate the endorphin rush. But it’s not the point. Say I snag a super cheap Amtrak train fare by booking far in advance. That delights me, but the real focus is taking the train, rather than less fuel-efficient driving or flying. Reviewing today’s consumption landscape, I applaud the many new strategies and infrastructures that facilitate frugal living 30 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M JA NUA RY 20 26

by people with the means to buy new, but who enjoy treasure-hunting while shrinking their carbon footprint a little. Now I am a grandmother. Recently, my daughter and son-in-law took their kids to a beautiful bookstore. My twin grandsons, then age 5, were very confused by the presence of a cashier and their parents paying money for new books. They had

A LOOK BACK « Notes from Publisher Alex Mulcahy Systemic changes are essential to the sustainability movement, but we wanted people to feel empowered by making small changes that aligned with their values. Thus, mindful consumption would be part of the editorial mix. Betsy Teutsch’s Frugal Living column advocated for backyard composting, buying Energy Star-rated appliances (but only when you must buy new), and making your own microwave popcorn by simply using a brown paper bag and popcorn kernels. We wanted to show that sustainability could be empowering and kind of fun.

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY J . P. F L E X N E R

More Life, Less Money

only checked out books from the library or picked them out of Little Free Libraries. That acquiring books in a store required an exchange of money was a completely foreign concept to them. One of my personal hobbies is shopping on eBay’s art-to-wear section. Frugal, yes, but also self-indulgent. A handwoven jacket at a high-end craft fair can run into the four figures. Its value declines while hanging in someone else’s closet, and I am the beneficiary. And if I wind up not really wearing one of these acquisitions, I just pass it along to a friend or donate it to the annual clothing giveaway in my neighborhood. Yes, I still make my popcorn in a paper bag in the microwave, but happily, I can say that my microwave is now powered by our rooftop solar panels, something not yet viable in 2008. While electricity bills soar, we receive $0 bills from PECO. Our investment will pay back more quickly, in a big win-win for both planet and pocketbook. A big perk of reaching 65 in the Delaware Valley is a free SEPTA Key card. (When seniors swipe their fare cards, SEPTA actually receives revenue from the Pennsylvania Lottery, but it is free for the user.) I use mine all the time on buses, trains, trolleys and the L, aided by free, excellent real-time information from a terrific app, Transit (transitapp.com). Come to think of it, Transit is always trying to get me to upgrade to a paid version. Given how useful its product is to me, that ought to be my next purchase. Sometimes I need to remind myself not to be too frugal. ◆

Better Call Stu Stuart Leon looks back on decades of fighting for Philly’s cyclists — STORY AND PHOTO BY JULIA LOWE

he entrance to Stuart Leon’s office is adorned with a rack of luchador masks and rolls of “Loading Zone” stickers. Life-size cardboard cutouts of Leon and his legal team welcome guests into the office’s nerve center, where Stuart Leon Bicycle Crash Law T-shirts spill from the shelves. From under a pile of brightly patterned neckties, Leon pulls a pirate sword. “Because we’re the enforcement.” Leon has been representing bicycle crash victims in the city since 1997. In that time, Philadelphia’s bicycle ridership has more than doubled, with South Philly and Center City having some of the highest bicycle commuter rates in the nation, and more than 200 miles of bike lanes have been added to the city’s streets. Although the numbers might suggest that Philadelphia has become a top city for cyclists — and it has — Leon says that the growth in infrastructure hasn’t been met with adequate enforcement. “The tolerance of parking and loading zone activities in the bike lanes — that’s the status quo. And we’re trying to change that.” In December of 2024, Mayor Cherelle Parker signed the “Get Out the Bike Lane Bill” into law, increasing fines for those who park illegally along bike lanes throughout the city. “If you ask any bicycle rider if it’s made a difference in their commute, it hasn’t,” says Leon, an avid cyclist himself. It’s that persistent lack of enforcement that inspired Leon’s “GTFOTBL” sticker campaign, which colorfully riffs on the actual law’s tamer name. When the bill was first introduced in City Council, Leon began implementing enforcement on his own right away. He started posting videos to his social media page, wearing his signature colorful suit — and a luchador mask — slapping vinyl stickers onto the windows of delivery trucks stopped in bike lanes in Center City. “These delivery companies, they just pay these tickets in bulk. They’re absorbed into the cost of doing business,” says Leon. “They are renting the bike lanes.”

On a recent “enforcement sweep,” Leon stickered a FedEx delivery truck in a bike lane on Pine Street and was questioned by the driver. When Leon pointed out that bicyclists were being forced to go around the truck, the driver replied that the company told him he could stop in bike lanes. After Leon told him he couldn’t, the delivery driver proceeded to stop further down in the travel lane of Pine Street to make his next delivery. “Good on him, right? And then there’s just a stream of cars going around him — into the bike lane.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Leon has seen a dramatic increase not only in the number of delivery trucks in the city obstructing bike lanes, but also in the number of hit-and-runs involving bicyclists. He calls it an epidemic. Oren Roth-Eisenberg was a client of Leon’s in a 2019 lawsuit against Julius Silvert for its delivery trucks parking in the 13 Street bike lane during morning rush hour. After several near-miss incidents on his daily commute, Roth-Eisenberg took action against the food distributor and the PPA for effectively renting out the bike lane to the

company. The suit was eventually dropped, and the City ended up moving the 13th Street bike lane to the other side of the street and separating it with flex posts, in addition to adding more loading zones. Then, in 2021, Leon represented Roth-Eisenberg again, after he was the victim of a hit-and-run in Fairmount Park. Roth-Eisenberg was riding up Sedgley Drive when a driver weaved into the bicycle lane and struck him. “The vehicle kept driving and then looped around about a minute later, stopped in front of me — saw that I wasn’t dead — and then, as I tried to walk over to the vehicle, sped off again.” After the crash, Roth-Eisenberg reached out to Leon, who was able to identify the owner of the vehicle and seek damages for his medical care for the broken wrist he suffered. Although he recovered relatively quickly, not being able to ride his bike for a month essentially put his life on hold, Roth-Eisenberg says. “That’s my transportation. That’s my social life. That’s part of my identity. I mean, I have a tattoo of a bike on me,” says Roth-Eisenberg. “It’s a helpless place to be in after you’ve been crashed out. And they come here, and we start putting the pieces back together for people,” says Leon. Perhaps the most common type of bike crash Leon sees is dooring — he works for one such victim every week. Michelle Smolka, of Grays Ferry, had been the victim of

Stuart Leon represents injured cyclists in court and in the bike lanes.

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about a half-dozen dooring incidents before a passenger exiting a vehicle doored her on 3rd Street in 2019, sending her off her bike and into a parked car. “I had to get 21 stitches in my left thigh. It was pretty deep. And my helmet was totally crushed, which was great, because otherwise, that would have been my head,” says Smolka. Smolka, who previously worked as a bike courier, knew Leon through the bicycling community and called him the next day. While dooring incidents are not a new phenomenon, one big change for Leon is that his office has become a family business: Ten years ago, Leon’s son, Zachary, entered the law field. Zachary Leon says since joining the practice full-time, he’s never wanted to have another job, and between the two of them, the father-son duo are now in court almost every day defending the rights of bike crash victims. “The two of us were so much more than the sum of the parts,” Stuart Leon says. “And I don’t think I ever would have trusted somebody. I didn’t trust anybody else or even try.” Zachary Leon says he and his father don’t leave their work at the office. “My mind and heart and our conversations are always here. We talk about it at home. We talk about it down the shore.” As for the road ahead, while Leon says the outlook for safe bike lanes is “grim,” he believes that proper enforcement and a shift in attitude to one that’s respectful of bicyclists’ rights could brighten that future. “The city has the potential to be the most incredible place to commute by bike,” says Leon. “One year from now, if they took enforcement seriously and started towing these vehicles out of the bike lanes, I think it’d be a different world here.” ◆ A LOOK BACK « Notes from Publisher Alex Mulcahy In 2008, Dana Henry’s story about a lawyer focused on defending cyclists seemed novel and niche. Sadly, representing injured riders seems to be a steady business. Congratulations to Stuart Leon whose operation now includes his son Zach. Dear readers, may you never have occasion to call Stuart Leon. But he will be there if you need him.

32 GRID P H IL LY.CO M JA NUA RY 2026

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The more greens you eat, the better your fortune will be in the new year!

Wishing you a happy and healthy new year! THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR CUSTOMERS, MEMBERS, NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS.

Photo credit: Erica Moser/University Communications

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