York County to Collect Recycling Weekly Starting In January

By Amber Lester Kennedy Saturday, December 11, 2010

York County residents will again be able to put out recyclables on a weekly basis starting Jan. 3.

Since July 5, the county has picked up recycling bins every other week after the Board of Supervisors approved a change in the service for fiscal year 2010. But the cost-cutting experiment failed; on Aug. 3, the board acknowledged the every-other-week approach wasn’t going to work and approved a switch back to weekly pickup. The change in service trimmed $100,000 from the county budget, but cost the county $50,000 to re-implement the weekly service.

At the Aug. 3 meeting, John Hudgins, director of the Department of Environmental and Development Services, told the board that soon after the change in service, county workers found recyclables spilling over the sides of the county-provided 18-gallon bins, with trash strewn across the streets on windy days.

Switching back to weekly pickup isn’t as simple as sending out trucks more frequently, however. Hudgins told the board it would take four to six months to implement the change through its recycling service providers, Tidewater Fibre and the Virginia Peninsula Public Service Authority. Because the process to re-implement weekly service took several months, the board still saved $50,000 for this fiscal year.

The remaining $50,000 came out of the county’s contingency reserve. To make up for the loss, the board agreed to allow County Administrator James McReynolds to evaluate any positions that open up and leave approximately three positions vacant in the next budget.

At the August meeting, Hudgins told the board many of the county’s recycling problems could be solved if larger bins were available to citizens. Although the exact cost is not known, McReynolds estimated it would cost the county around $500,000 to $550,000 to purchase larger bins for the approximately 60 percent of households that periodically recycle. About 45 percent of the county’s residents put bins out regularly.

In a press release dated Dec. 8, the county said it appreciated the participation of residents who continued to recycle every other week. The change is only in frequency; residents should continue to set recycling bins on the curb by 7 a.m. on their regular collection day each week. For more information, click here.