Today was the last day that contractors from Waste Management picked up recyclable materials at curbside.
The contractors have collected the items for years and taken them to Uwharrie Environmental in Troy, a recycling collection and distribution station. Items that were not bought for recycling were deposited in the lined Montgomery County landfill in Troy. Proceeds from the recycled materials went to Waste Management.
Recycling for town residents and businesses is still voluntary. The new center for Southern Pines will accept plastic milk and drink bottles, aluminum cans and newspapers. It will also accept magazines and corrugated cardboard (not boxes) for the first time. It will no longer accept glass products, said Tim Allen, Southern Pines street maintenance supervisor.
Four bins are ready, with signs on them to show which items should go in them. A big roll-off bin is for plastics, metal and aluminum products. A separate container will take newspapers, a third magazines, and a fourth corrugated cardboard.
The Southern Pines Town Council agreed this year to eliminate curbside recycling as a cost-cutting measure and convert to the recycling drop-off center. It will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Waste Management’s new contract with Southern Pines will continue to require curbside pickup of household garbage and yard debris as before, on a regular basis.
The new recycling bins were delivered Thursday, along with directional signs to tell motorists how to reach the center from four directions, on Morganton Road and on U.S. 1 service roads at the old Access Printing Building that the town now owns, just south of the Lob Steer Inn.
The center is flanked by the old fire station, which is now the Southern Pines Recreation Center housing the Boys & Girls Club; the public works complex off Memorial Park Court near the ballfield; and the back parking lot of the former Access Printing building behind Public Works. West Iowa Avenue and Kensington Street are on the eastern boundary.
“A major change is that glass products will no longer be accepted for recycling,” Town Manager Kyle Sonnenberg said.
The recycling market has dropped, and other kinds of collection and resale profitability have also declined, resulting in Waste Management’s requesting $155,000 this year just to continue curbside pickup for recyclables.
The Town Council agreed not to continue that part of the contract because of the expense, instead saving about $100,000 by building its own drop-off center. The continuing cost of running the center will be about $15,000 to $25,000 a year, depending on the level of use, town Public Works Director Bobby Teague has said.
Waste Management will collect the listed recyclable materials for the town from the drop-off center and take them to Uwharrie Environmental in Troy as before.
The difference is that Southern Pines residents will now take their recyclables to the center voluntarily, instead of having them picked up from their homes once a week. Residents may keep the green bins for that purpose, Sonnenberg said.
“We hope they’ll continue to recycle at the previous level,” Allen said. Depending on the neighborhood, household recycling participation during curbside pickup ranged from 20 to 50 percent.
Pinehurst residents and businesses have curbside pickup on alternate weeks and a drop-off center as well. Participation is about 40 percent, Village Manager Andy Wilkison said.
Orange flyers notifying Southern Pines residents of the change, with maps showing them where the new center is located, along with detailed rules and instructions, were supposed to be left in the emptied green bins this week when the trucks came around for the final pickup.
For more information, interested persons should call Waste Management at 692-5800.
