Sep 7, 2016 3 min read

Federal stimulus money made available to help the United States emerge from the Great Recession aided Nottingham Township’s efforts to establish a recycling center, which proved to be a victim of its own success.

The site grew popular during a time when the bottom fell out of the recycling market as the price of petrochemicals, used to make plastics, dropped. The township was spending much more on hauling than it was receiving from the recycled commodities so that about a year ago the township asked that its use be limited to only Nottingham residents.

Recent action by the Washington County commissioners aims to have the Nottingham recycling center again be a regional effort.

Nottingham, which had a population of 3,036, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, is not mandated to have residents recycle through curbside collection, but several years ago, they wanted some recycling option. Peter V. Marcoline Jr., now chairman of the board of supervisors, and former chairman Ray Barley discussed the matter with representatives of the county planning commission.

Through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, Washington County was eligible for stimulus funds made available in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and it purchased a compactor to increase volume capacity and prepared the site. Nottingham residents’ tax dollars were used to erect a canopy.

Residents of nearby communities in the Mon Valley and Canonsburg areas, which do not have weekly curbside pickup of recyclables, may have found the Nottingham site a convenient drop-off site during off-weeks, contributing to large amounts of paper, plastics, glass and aluminum and steel cans.

The county receives a state Department of Environmental Protection annual municipal recycling performance grant, and to aid the Nottingham center, it will reimburse the township up to $3,000 per year for documented hauling costs, said Jason Theakston, the Washington County Planning Commission’s recycling coordinator. The township last year contracted with Republic Services of Carnegie to haul recyclables, Marcoline said.

The township intends to update its website to reflect that the facility at 909 Sugar Run Road, Eighty Four, is open to all. The site has video surveillance to deter dumping, and many volunteers help maintain the site during weekends. During the weekdays, the public works department handles the task. The website also notes when cold weather, hard on hydraulic equipment, forces closures, typically between January and mid-March.

“I don’t get many calls from municipalities that don’t have recycling to start a program,” Theakston said. “The commissioners felt it was not fair to Nottingham taxpayers to shoulder the bill for the whole county.”