Beader: Call lawmakers over recycling changes

A private hauler will take over the county recycling program.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County Commissioner Brian Beader said he is advising residents upset about the temporary closing of four recycling drop-off sites in the county to contact their state legislators.
Beader said at the commissioners' agenda meeting Wednesday that he is telling residents who call that "we were forced into this situation because we lost tipping fees."
He was referring to a 2005 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that forbade counties and municipalities from using those fees to fund recycling programs. Tipping fees are paid to landfills for dumping waste.
The state Legislature is trying to come up with a solution which would provide a new income source to local recycling programs. Since the court ruling, the county has struggled to find funding to keep the county recycling program going.
Commissioners recently announced they will pay the cost of a private hauler to take over the program -- a move that will reduce the costs substantially. The system the county ran with its own trucks cost 250,000 per year.
A new deal
The recently signed contract with Tri-County Industries in Grove City will cost 147,000 for three years. The county is in the process this week of changing over from the old recycling system, which used county trucks and that necessitated separating cans, glass and plastics, to one that allows those items to be mixed. The new system, however, requires different bins for compatibility with trucks.
Commissioner Kenneth Seamans said Wednesday morning that recycling sites at a Hempfield Township shopping center and at the Pine Township Wal-Mart already had been changed over and that all five sites to be immediately served by the 23 new bins were expected to be changed over by Wednesday evening.
The 23 new bins were provided by Lawrence County, which had extras. Four other drop-off sites have been temporarily closed because the county does not have enough of the new style bins to serve them.
Seamans said commissioners have been told that the additional 10 bins needed to serve those sites have been committed to the county and that 90 percent of their approximately 60,000 cost will be paid through a state grant and 10 percent will have to be paid by the county.
Bids still have to be let for a supplier for those bins, so it is not certain when the four closed sites will be open for drop-offs again. The temporarily closed sites are at Jamestown, Hadley Township, Sandy Lake and at the Shenango Valley Mall.