Aug 22, 2018 3 min read

McMURRAY – And now for something somewhat different: the way you recycle.

When new contracts for residential solid waste collection kick in Jan. 1 for communities throughout the South Hills, the materials that qualify as recyclable will change. That includes Peters Township.

“There’s going to have to be a real effort, and I think that ought to start this fall, educating people about what can go into that bin,” township manager Paul Lauer told council members at their Aug. 13 meeting.

Council will vote later this month or in September on a five-year contract, through 2023, in conjunction with a joint bidding process by the South Hills Area Council of Governments on behalf of its member municipalities. Each municipality has options available to tailor the contract to local specifications.

But the reality for everyone involved is glass and certain types of plastic containers – those with resin codes below 2, as labeled – no longer can be recycled.

“The market for all of the recycled materials has collapsed, and so therefore the recycled material that used to generate revenue for the collector, it no longer does,” Lauer explained.

“There’s a real concern if municipalities can’t get their residents to come to grips with what can and can’t be recycled, this material that’s being thrown in these recycling bins is not going to be recycled,” he said. “It’s going to end up in landfills.”

Peters Township is one of the only municipalities in the South Hills to collect recycled materials on a weekly basis, rather than every other week, and the expense contributes toward solid waste collection representing the most costly public works contract. The amount in the 2018 budget for the Solid Waste Services Fund is $1.615 million.

With the new contract, the price tag will rise. Lauer said that under the status quo for collection, including no weekly limit for non-recyclable materials, the increase would be $220,000 for 2019 and $482,000 by the final year.

Council members expressed a consensus to consider automated collection of garbage, in a manner similar to the current system for recycling.

“It’s going to be automated collection at some point in the future, anyhow,” Jim Berquist, council chairman, said. “I think recycling has gone very well. I don’t see as many cans and bottles rolling around the street as you used to.”

Some municipalities with automated systems limit the amount of trash to what fills one container, with added fees for larger amounts. But the SHACOG joint bid calls for no such constraints, Lauer said.