For more than a decade leading up to 2007, the city of Philadelphia maintained only a 6 percent residential recycling rate. In a given week, the average Philly household recycled about one Sunday Inquirer and two 16-ounce pop bottles.

This rate put Philadelphia — the first major city in the nation to pass a law mandating recycling, in 1987 — in second-to-last place among cities with populations of more than 1 million (of those nine U.S. cities, only Houston had a lower rate). The nation's leader, Los Angeles, boasted a rate of 45 percent.

Recently, however, Philly's green spirit has appeared to be making a comeback. After increasing to 7 percent last year, the city's recycling rate — or, in industry parlance, "diversion rate," the amount of material diverted from disposal through recycling — has gone up again, and will stand at about 8 percent at the end of 2008.

By using operational changes such as more frequent pickups and educational campaigns, Scott McGrath, the city's acting recycling coordinator, says he hopes to get that rate up to between 15 percent and 18 percent over the next three years. It's a change that local environmental organizations are pleased with. But they're also wondering why Philly would stop there, when cities like L.A. are recycling at more than three times our rate. They believe more can and should be done.

The city's uptick to 8 percent, according to both McGrath and industry groups, was driven by the launch of single-stream recycling to nearly all of the city's neighborhoods. Single-stream, which allows residents to place all recyclables in one container without separating paper from metal (and also introduces corrugated cardboard and some plastic to the recycling stream), began in the Northeast in July 2006 and has been expanded citywide in three phases since. When Mayor Michael Nutter took office in January, plans to take it citywide were fast-tracked. There are still about 80,000 households in Northwest Philadelphia that don't have it yet; they're due to receive it by July.

The next major recycling change on Philly's schedule is citywide weekly pickup, replacing the biweekly service most of the city currently receives. With the introduction of weekly pickup, "People will recycle as much as they are given the opportunity to, so that's also going to help create more material," explains Christine Knapp of PennFuture and a member of the city's Recycling Advisory Committee (RAC). McGrath says the entire city should receive weekly pickup by January 2009.

There's also a planned expanded public education campaign, which McGrath hopes will help get Philadelphia to 10 percent by the end of 2009, and then on to the short-term goal of 18 percent.

"When we get to that point [15 percent to 18 percent]," he says, "we'll reassess where we are and see if we need to go beyond there."

Considering the paltry single-digit stats Philly's had since 1987, this would, of course, be a welcome change. Yet Knapp believes the city should strive for more. "I think it's good to set realistic goals and I think 18 percent is realistic, but when New York is around 25 percent and West Coast cities like L.A. are doing 50 percent, 18 sounds really measly."

If the city does want to further increase its recycling rate, there are other options to explore. The incentive-based RecycleBank program was first piloted in 2005 in Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane. Participants in RecycleBank separate their recyclables in the same single-stream manner as the rest of the city, but their recycling trucks are equipped to weigh their recyclables. Based on weight, households are rewarded with coupons to stores like CVS and Ikea.

McGrath says diversion rates in West Oak Lane went up with the introduction of the program but that Chestnut Hill's already high rate essentially stayed the same.

Expanding RecycleBank could boost the city's diversion rate, but the city is still evaluating the program, says McGrath, and hasn't decided whether to continue, expand or disband it.

"The barrier as far as utilizing that approach in other parts of the city is ... it adds another 18 to 20 seconds on to the collection time, which adds another two to three hours of work to the route. So either you have to add more trucks and crews or you have to essentially accommodate a lot more overtime to do that type of process," says McGrath.

RecycleBank pays for the current pilot program; if it expanded, the city would have to foot the bill.

Knapp and Emily Linn of the Clean Air Council understand the concerns, and believe RecycleBank should be expanded gradually, to gauge its effectiveness on a larger scale before implementing the program citywide. Knapp says the RAC made this recommendation about a year and a half ago.

Theories on the cause of Philadelphia's historically low diversion rate vary depending on whom you ask. McGrath blames the absence of a consistent education effort; Linn says she thinks the city's "hodgepodge" programs and numerous pickup cycles confuse residents.

The good news is that the city is already addressing both concerns, with plans for year-round marketing campaigns and a unified citywide recycling program (with the exception of RecycleBank). And the Nutter administration looks to be a positive influence, as well: As promised in his campaign, Nutter's proposed budget includes $25 million over the next five years for the purchase of additional trucks and worker hours (necessary for weekly pickup) and the marketing campaign. The money will also be used to purchase more recycling bins, the availability of which Knapp says is a common concern.

Knapp is hopeful, then, that improvements will continue. "[The Nutter administration] definitely seems committed to recycling," she says. "The Recycling Alliance and the RAC are both excited about what's coming, and we're just going to keep holding both the mayor and the City Council's feet to the fire and make sure that all of these promises are actually implemented."