Northeast Philadelphia: totes in and out of the industrial park

01What sits here

The district reaches from the river at Torresdale and Holmesburg past Roosevelt Boulevard and the Boulevard’s food plants to the Bucks County line. Food manufacturing, light manufacturing and distribution fill the industrial land. It shares a border, and a labour pool, with Bensalem, so a plant on one side and a warehouse on the other are the same neighbourhood in practice.

02Who has empties, who needs totes

Food makers send out ingredient empties: the grade that suits garden and farm water. Distribution buildings send out the occasional pallet of rinsed totes. The district is also close to Philadelphia’s gardens and Bucks County farms, so a NEED ticket here is often filled within a few miles.

03Roads, rules and the move

I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike are at the edge of the district, with Roosevelt Boulevard, Red Lion Road and Woodhaven Road crossing it. The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge crosses to Palmyra, and the Betsy Ross Bridge to Pennsauken, from the south end. The state agency for empty containers is Pennsylvania DEP.

04Next door

05On the ground

Northeast Philadelphia’s industrial land is spread along Roosevelt Boulevard and Red Lion Road, with smaller yards among the rowhouses. A seller should say whether the totes sit in a yard open to the street. A gardener in the city will want a small, rinsed tote, and a truck with a lift gate can serve ten stops in a morning.

06Weather, season and timing

Roosevelt Boulevard is wide and fast, with long lights and many left-turn restrictions, so a driver unfamiliar with it can lose time. Sellers should give the cross street and the turn directions. A gardener who collects a tote by van should bring straps and a helper, and avoid a Saturday morning when church and market traffic builds.

07A ticket from here

• Put one of the ZIP codes from the first table on the ticket.
• Say the park or the street, the grade and the count.

08Neighbourhoods and roads

The district takes in Torresdale, Holmesburg, Bustleton and the Boulevard corridor, with Red Lion Road, Woodhaven Road and Roosevelt Boulevard carrying trucks. Philadelphia’s combined sewer system serves about 60 percent of the city, and Rain Check gives homeowners free rain barrels after a required workshop, so rain capture is already a known idea on these blocks.

+More in Philadelphia County

• BensalemFood makers, food distribution and warehousing.
• Food and beveragePureland, Pennsauken and Northeast Philadelphia: ingredient totes and what follows them.
• South PhiladelphiaThe Navy Yard, the Bellwether District and the old refinery ground.
• Back to Philadelphia County