When Trash Becomes a Climate Issue

Illegal dumping is the unlawful disposal of waste outside authorized waste management systems. While often framed as a sanitation or enforcement issue, it is also a climate resilience and environmental justice challenge.

Beyond creating unsightly conditions, illegally dumped waste can clog storm drains, increasing the risk of localized flooding during heavy rainfall (Briggs, 2021). It can contaminate waterways, degrade neighborhood green spaces, and contribute to urban heat and public health risks by diminishing the environmental benefits these spaces provide (Rinde, 2022). These impacts are often concentrated in historically marginalized communities that have experienced decades of environmental disinvestment Whyte et al., 2021; Hazelton & Russ, 2023). As a result, illegal dumping represents a hyper-local form of climate vulnerability that exacerbates existing inequities while undermining community resilience.

Because illegal dumping is experienced locally and unevenly, there is tremendous value in approaches that center resident knowledge in policy conversations. Public deliberation is a democratic process that brings community members together to learn about an issue, share perspectives, weigh trade-offs, generate innovative solutions, and consider possible responses (Fishkin, 2018; Dryzek et al., 2019).

Over the next several years, the Climate and Sustainability Policy Deliberation (CPD) Project will partner with community organizations and schools in under-resourced neighborhoods across Philadelphia to facilitate public deliberation on climate and sustainability issues, including illegal dumping. These sessions prioritize the inclusion of residents who are often excluded from formal policy conversations, strengthening the relevance of the discussion. A top priority for us is to hear from and document the perspectives of a broad range of community members. Our approach resembles that of focus groups, which aim to identify as many important issues as possible, not to adjudicate which are most important—a task appropriate for later stages.

During AY2025–26, CPD partnered with the Overbrook Environmental Education Center to host several “Trash Talkin’” sessions with residents, business owners, and contractors. Sessions took place in trusted neighborhood institutions, including schools, churches, and community centers. Each began with an introductory video on illegal dumping, followed by small-group discussions of four to five participants examining root causes and potential solutions. Trained facilitators guided the conversations, notetakers documented key themes, and each session concluded with a straw poll to capture participants’ perspectives on possible solutions.

Early insights suggest that participants bring nuanced, frequently surprising, experience-based understandings of illegal dumping that surface priorities and trade-offs often overlooked in formal policy processes. While many emphasized stronger enforcement measures, others raised concerns about surveillance and noted the limits of education and outreach. Grounding deliberation in residents’ lived experience helps ensure that solutions are relevant, equitable, and actionable, while strengthening civic engagement, environmental justice efforts, and neighborhood-level climate resilience.

References

Briggs, R. (2021, September 3). How Philly’s trash problem made Hurricane Ida flooding worse. WHYY. 

Dryzek, J. S., Bächtiger, A., Chambers, S., Cohen, J., Druckman, J. N., Felicetti, A., Fishkin, J. S., Farrell, D. M., Fung, A., Gutmann, A., Landemore, H., Mansbridge, J., Marien, S., Neblo, M. A., Niemeyer, S., Setälä, M., Slothuus, R., Suiter, J., Thompson, D., & Warren, M. E. (2019). The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation. Science, 363(6432), 1144–1146. 

Fishkin, J. S. (2018). Democracy When the People Are Thinking: Revitalizing Our Politics Through Public Deliberation. Oxford University Press. 

Hazelton, L., & Russ, V. (2023, March 29). Everyone in Philly knows illegal dumping is a problem. But for many Black, brown, and low-income residents, it’s a crisis. Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Rinde, M. (2022, March 28). Philly’s big illegal dumping problem: Residents are furious as the city picks up more trash, catches fewer perpetrators. Billy Penn at WHYY. 

Whyte, R., Wu, E., & Hersh, S. (2021, March 16). Opinion: Individuals alone didn’t create Philly’s litter problems and individuals alone can’t solve it. WHYY.