SHARON Trash-recycling fee will increase under contract with new hauler

Waste Management didn't want to renew its pact.
SHARON, Pa. -- City council approved a new three-year garbage-recycling contract for city residents, but the vote wasn't unanimous.
Rates are going up as the city switches from Waste Management of Pennsylvania to Tri-County Industries of Grove City as the garbage hauler for residential garbage and trash as well as recycling.
Waste Management's three-year contract expires Jan. 31, and the company didn't want to renew it. That pact also covered Hermitage, Farrell and Wheatland, and those three municipalities have approved a three-year agreement with Tri-County as well.
Sharon residents will pay $11.41 per month for unlimited curbside garbage pickup, and that cost will include weekly recycling pickups.
Residents were paying $8.23 per month for unlimited garbage pickups with Waste Management but had to pay 61 cents for special recycling bags.
The recycling bags are eliminated under the Tri-County agreement, and the city, with the aid of the Mercer County Solid Waste Authority, will provide residents with plastic recycling bins.
Residents who don't want to pay for unlimited garbage pickup will be able to buy individual garbage bags at $1.84 each.
Divided council
Councilmen Lou Rotunno and Fred Hoffman voted against the contract Thursday while Ray Fabian, Chris Outrakis and George Gulla supported it.
Rotunno and Hoffman said they thought the city could have negotiated a better deal with Tri-County or bought a different garbage-recycling package.
They also questioned making recycling mandatory for every resident of the city.
Rotunno said he knows that Sharon is mandated by the state to have a recycling program but that mandate doesn't require 100 percent recycling.
However, everyone will have to pay for recycling under the new contract, he and Hoffman said.