Curbside appeal of recycling system yields results in Liberty Township

By John w. Goodwin jr.

LIBERTY — It has been a little more than two months since the township embarked on a new trash collection and recycling program, and residents have taken to the recycling in a major way.

Residents expressed skepticism and some resistance to the trustees’ plan several months ago to name Allied Waste as the township’s exclusive trash hauler. Trustees explained the hauling and recycling program repeatedly to residents in a series of meetings.

Allied Waste is providing weekly trash collection for a monthly charge of $15.43 per resident. The company also agreed to collect recyclable items for free.

Residents also have the option of paying for trash collection by the bag. The price for by-the-bag collection is $2 per bag, and those residents still have recyclable items picked up for free in large bins provided by Allied Waste and designated for recycling.

Trustee Jodi Stoyak said residents did not begin an immediate love affair with the program when it was adopted but have slowly come around.

“At first we received a lot of calls from unhappy people. The office really did well in handling the phone calls from a lot of people who didn’t understand the program,” she said. “What people are really starting to realize is that recycling is such a big part of this program with the use of that larger recycling container.”

Stoyak said many people are now combining the per-bag plan with the recycling to realize an overall savings on trash disposal. This realization is driving the new trash system to success, she added.

The program is now 2 1‚Ñ2 months old, and more than 3,500 homeowners out of about 4,700 available homes have signed up for weekly trash collection. There has been more than 130,000 tons of trash collected under the program in that time.

Stoyak said Allied has collected about 2.89 tons of recyclable material each collection day. She said, despite the early skepticism, about 80 percent of the township is participating in the recycling program.

“This is a very exciting program, and I am thrilled that we are doing this and thrilled that it has been so successful,” Stoyak said. “It’s one thing to say you are going green in your community, but something else to offer curbside recycling to everyone in your township.”

jgoodwin@ivndy.com