Philadelphia marked a mini-milestone in its trash history yesterday: Residents throughout the city can now put their recyclables into a single bin instead of sorting them by product.

The move brings on 80,000 homes in Northwest Philadelphia, the last section of the city still sorting.

Officials hope this final expansion will propel one of the country's most dismal recycling records into more respectable territory.

For years Philadelphia had been at the bottom of the national pile among major cities, with a residential recycling rate of 5.5 percent.

"Single-stream" recycling - so named because all the items go into one container, to be sorted later at a regional facility - is one of the best ways to increase participation, advocates say.

Sure enough, after launching single-stream recycling two summers ago in the Northeast, followed gradually by other neighborhoods, the city has seen participation increase to about 8 percent.

The goal is the national norm: 18 percent.

Unhampered by the urban restraints of multifamily dwellings, skinny streets and other factors, some suburban communities in the region have recycling rates of 20 to 30 percent. However, since state law does not require municipalities with fewer than 5,000 people to have curbside recycling programs, there are gaps.

For the fiscal year that just ended, city recycling coordinator Scott McGrath said, residents recycled 51,000 tons, earning the government $1.7 million - and saving it almost twice that much, $3.2 million, by avoiding the $62-per-ton cost of landfilling it.)

Mayor Nutter boasted that Philadelphia is now the largest East Coast city with single-stream recycling.

He lauded the program in a lighthearted City Hall event yesterday that included a percussion ensemble drumming on overturned recycling bins and the city's newest mascot: Curby Bucket, with oversized red sneakers and, yes, a large blue bucket for a torso.

Nutter also declared July 7 "BINdependence Day" and led the crowd of students and advocates in a chant: "All together now!"

Articles the city accepts include phone books, newspapers, mail and magazines, crushed food boxes, bottles made of Nos. 1 and 2 plastic, glass, cans, and flattened cardboard.

Residents get their choice of bins. They can use the standard blue plastic bin the city provides, or any other plastic bin, as long as it is marked "recycling."

Streets Commissioner Clarena I.W. Tolson said recycling is good for the environment and the economy. "Keep doing it," she urged the crowd. "It's important."

Recycling advocate Christine Knapp of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future praised the development. "The city's now providing the program they need to be providing," she said. "Now, the onus is on the residents to take advantage of it."

A lone dissenter was Evelyn Goodgal, a senior citizen who complained that residents of a certain age can't possibly tote large bins from their basements to the curb.

What remains, advocates say, is for the city to increase collection of recyclables from every other week to weekly, which already is the case in some areas. McGrath said that would happen citywide in January.