Peters Township getting new recycling bins
Approximately 7,500 Peters residents will be receiving new 65-gallon recycling containers next month as part of a township plan to streamline its recycling efforts.
Tom Gromek, Peters recycling coordinator and assistant to the township manager, said township residents whose trash and recycling are picked up weekly by Waste Management will be getting the hinged, wheeled gray and blue containers within the month, but no specific delivery date has been set yet. The new recycling service is scheduled to begin April 6, he said.
Township residents currently pay $51 every four months for trash and recycling collection. That fee is not expected to change, he said. Recycling is picked up the same day as the trash.
Gromek said the township ordered 8,100 of the new containers. The inside of the lid will contain information about what can or cannot be recycled. Plus, the size of the new bins, which are owned by the township, is nearly triple in size of the current 22-gallon containers, which do not have lids.
“It helps us in the state recycling goal of recycling 35 percent of all waste,” he said.
Residents will be asked to put the new recycling containers at least three feet away from garbage cans or cars. This will allow the driver of the driver of the recycling truck to stay inside the vehicle and use the automated collection system. If a container gets damaged, it will be repaired at no cost to the resident.
“We think this will be more cost efficient,” he said.
It has not yet been decided what the township plans to do with the old recycling containers, Gromek said.
“You can keep the old containers and use them as supplemental recycling,” he said. “Public Works may also be picking them up, or we can have drop off locations. Details will follow.”
The conversion to the larger containers is being 90 percent funded by a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, he said. The grant includes a cardboard compactor, which will be purchased in the coming year.