FRACKVILLE - Recent resident complaints with recycling collection in the borough will lead to a meeting between borough officials and the hauling company to iron out the problems.
The recycling program topic was raised during Wednesday's Frackville Borough Council meeting by Sanitation Committee Chairman Bradley Gotshall during the sanitation report.
"I apologize to all the residents for the issues we've been having with recycling," Gotshall said.
The council voted unanimously in April to contract with Kreitzer Sanitation Inc, which is the borough's trash collector, to collect recyclables on a bi-weekly basis using curbside single-stream recycling.
Single stream recycling means that all items can be placed into a single container rather than placed in separate containers for paper, glass and metal.
The contract has Kreitzer collecting the recyclables at $2,700 per month with no rate increases for 36 months and no fuel surcharges or additional fees. The borough hopes to save about 25 percent or more on its trash disposal costs. According to Gotshall in April, the borough would save a minimum of $5,100 annually with recyclables being taken out of the landfill stream.
"For the past few months, Kreitzer is going through some transitional phases with getting a new office and staff," Gotshall said. "They're trying to change up their routes in Frackville on how they collect the garbage and recyclables."
Gotshall reported that he has had a meeting with Kreitzer officials.
"I did sit down with Kreitzer Sanitation to let them know that this is not working properly and that they should definitely change their ways with regard to recyclings," he said. "I made it clear to them I am not happy with the services they are providing."
Resident Ronald Liem suggested that the problem is the recyclables are collected the same day as household trash. He added that if residents are putting out recyclables without special containers, they are supposed to mark the bags that have recyclables, but since many are not, those collecting on the trucks are not always sure about what is trash or recycled materials.
"I did ask Kreitzer if we could change the day of recycling from Wednesday to another day so it wouldn't confuse the residents or the collector," Gotshall said.
Gotshall said he has requested a breakdown of how much trash and recyclables are collected, but he not received a report yet. Councilman Brian Dillman, who co-chairs the sanitation committee, said he wanted to attend the next meeting with Kreitzer.
After the meeting, Gotshall said the majority of the complaints are due to missed collections at the most recent collection.
"The complaints are not only about missed collections, but they have been the recycled materials and placing into the garbage trucks and mixing it with the regular garbage," Gotshall said. "Obviously that is not good. We have some major issues. We're working on it."