The council is considering eliminating the weekly curbside pickup when the contract with Waste Management expires June 30, because of higher fuel costs and a poor market for recycled plastics, newsprint and glass.
About the only thing with a steady market are aluminum cans and occasionally plastics, town officials told the council at a recent workshop session.
The town would continue to pick up garbage and collect yard rakings and debris as the contracts with Waste Manage-ment now provide.
Waste Management wants to increase the amount it charges Southern Pines for weekly curbside recycling from $100,000 to $155,000 a year. Special trucks take the materials to a recycling center in Troy. From there, revenues from any sales go to Waste Management, but the company must also absorb financial losses.
For the last couple of years, most of the collected recyclables have ended up in the landfill at Montgomery County, because there is no market for the materials, Public Works Director Bobby Teague said.
“The cost to Waste Management of collecting next year is about twice what they actually recycle,” Teague said at a recent council workshop session.
If Southern Pines were to change collection recyclables to every other week, or include an adjustable fuel charge in a new contract, that would cut costs to the company and to the town, Teague said. Another option would be to establish a central drop-off point where residents could take their recyclable materials, eliminating all curbside collection.
Aberdeen uses such a method. The town breaks even on the operation, Public Works Director Rickie Monroe said. Because the drop-off is voluntary and many people who are not Aberdeen residents use it, the town has to pay more in county landfill tipping fees to collect more garbage from residents who don’t bother with a recycling drop-off.
The village of Pinehurst has curbside pickup. It runs on a schedule of every other week.
Teague is expected to give the council a cost estimate at an April 28 work session on establishing an unmanned recycling center near Public Works.
The Pilot talked with several South-ern Pines residents. Most said they favor recycling because it’s the right thing to do. A couple even expressed willingness to go to a recycling center.
Robert Williams, who lives on Indiana Avenue, called The Pilot, protesting the potential eliminaton of curbside pickup.
“This town can afford it, if they can build a new fire station, a Boys and Girls Club [and] a new park on Pee Dee Road,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. We do recycling all over in New Jersey because we’re running out of land. It’s going to happen down here, if we aren’t careful. I love this town. ”
Southern Pines’ recycling program is “a bit vague,” and “there isn’t a whole lot of instruction” to residents, he feels.
“The fellow who sold this house to my mother must have explained it to her. That’s how I found out about it,” he said.
The Utilities Department is supposed to provide information about the recycling program to new water customers, he said.
George Reaves, who lives on West New Hampshire Avenue, said he takes his own aluminum cans to a recycler in West End and keeps the money. The bin beside his porch was partly filled with paper and bottles.
“Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to fill up the green bin,” he said.
“It’s always going to be more expensive to recycle than not,” Southern Pines Mayor Pro Tem Mike Haney said. “I’d tilt toward some kind of role by the town to help people recycle. I hate to abandon it just because of a cost issue. If we’re going to abandon curbside, I’d like to seriously consider a central drop-off for recycling.”
Council member John McInerney suggested recycling aluminum, instead of the other materials, and Council member Marquita Daniels agreed with a recycling center.
Town trash that is not picked up in the green bins goes to the Moore County landfill. Each town in Moore County is charged a tipping fee based on tonnage delivered to the county-owned site. Recycling advocates say this is environmentally friendly and saves valuable landfill space and landfill fees.
On most days all over Southern Pines, the ubiquitous green bins are either sitting at curbside or next to garage doors or beside garbage cans.
Southern Pines Pines residents have a better record for recycling than other towns with which Waste Management contracts, Teague told The Pilot.
“We won’t know if we’ll save money by changing to a drop-off center until after we try it for a few months,” he said.
Quis said the Town Council could change the contract back to curbside if the market improves.
