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Recycling drive cuts proposed
YOUNGSTOWN
The newly appointed director of the Mahoning County Recycling Division is proposing reducing the number of recycling drives.
It’s part of a strategy to cope with declining revenues due to reduced waste dumping in the county’s landfills.
The recycling division derives almost all of its revenue from dumping fees paid by the landfills for each ton of waste they receive.
The Central Waste landfill in Smith Township closed last year, causing the division to lose $600,000 in annual revenue, and the county now has only two active landfills, Carbon Limestone in Poland and the Mahoning landfill in Springfield Township.
Total recycling-division revenue was $2.6 million in 2012 and is projected to be $2.4 million this year and $2.4 million next year, said Lou Vega, county recycling director.
The recycling division is spending more money than it is receiving, causing its reserves to dwindle to the point where its carryover from 2013 to 2014 is expected to be $200,000 or less, Vega said.
To save $3,500, Vega told the county’s solid-waste- policy committee Tuesday that he recommends reducing tire collections from 11 to three annually. To save $6,000, he proposed cutting electronics collections from 10 to six annually.
To achieve other cost savings, Vega is recommending cutting the division’s allocation to the county engineer for landfill haul road maintenance from $45,000 this year to zero next year; discontinuing a business recycling contract with Allied Waste and having the nine-member recycling division staff do all of that work for a $37,200 annual savings; and leaving the assistant director position vacant for a $50,000 annual saving.
If a cut needs to be made in leaf collection efforts this fall, Jennifer Jones, Youngstown Litter Control and Recycling coordinator, told Vega she’d like to know about it and begin planning to deal with it soon.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, appliances will be collected for recycling at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown and electronic items at New Middletown Village Hall.