Plans to put a trash transfer station in a section of Bridesburg near Frankford have been scrapped.
John Ryan, a partner from the New York-based Aramingo Rail Transfer LP, which was hoping to bring a new transfer site to the 9-acre site at 2580 Church St., told the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment on Aug. 5 that his company was dropping the project.
The plan would have come before the zoning board Aug. 10.
Ryan didn’t return repeated calls for comment.
Alan Levin, president of nearby Northeast Building Products, said the neighborhood has been against the plan for three years.
Bridesburg residents and business owners, including Levin’s wife, Fran, last year asked members of the Frankford Civic Association to join their opposition to the project.
During a community meeting in Bridesburg last year, Ryan said his company was proposing a greener, economically friendlier way to handle municipal waste.
Ryan’s company wanted to create an enclosed building along the train tracks at that site. Trash trucks from all over the city would have been able to transfer their load to a waiting train that would then move the waste out of the city.
Shipping by rail, Ryan said, would help cut down on the harmful emissions from the trash trucks that currently are used to drive waste products out of the city.
However, at full capacity, the projected trash transfer facility would receive 2,500 tons of trash per day. This would account for about 325 garbage trucks a day traveling through Bridesburg to get to the transfer site.
Also, while the business could have been built as a matter of right because the area is zoned for properties such as the transfer facility, when the project originally was pitched, there was no mention that it would also be dealing with municipal waste. It was the inclusion of municipal waste that needed a zoning variance.
Once that was made clear, many groups, including the Bridesburg Civic Association, refused to support the project. ••
Reporter Hayden Mitman can be reached at 215–354–3124 or hmitman@bsmphilly.com
