HEGINS - A Schuylkill County recycling site in Hegins will be closing down later this month.
According to Lee Raring, solid waste and recycling coordinator, the recycling bins located at the former Midway Supermarket on Forest Drive in Hegins will shut down May 17.
Orange hazard cones have been placed around the bins but people can still deposit their recyclables there until the May 17 deadline, he said.
The closure comes on the heels of a "$1 gentlemen's lease agreement", Raring said, that the county had with store operator James W. Fetterhoff Sr., which is now voided.
Midway Supermarket Inc., formerly doing business as Midway Supermarket and Midway Supermarket Pharmacy, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Feb. 4 in Harrisburg with the United States Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Pennsylvania. It's not known if any future buyer of the grocery store would be willing to host the bins at the same location at a future date or even at that time if bins would be available.
"Mr. Fetterhoff has been very understanding up there and very tolerant," Raring said, of the public's use of the recycling bins which have been housed on the Midway parking lot property since 1999.
Midway's site had been among the top 10 sites used across Schuylkill County, based on tons recycled, according to Raring. When the Midway site closes, there will be 23 sites remaining in the county, he said.
Last year, there were 26.27 tons of cardboard, 88.5 tons of paper, 6.5 tons of cans - aluminum and steel, 15.3 tons of glass and 12.6 tons of plastics recycled at Midway's drop-off location alone, Raring reported.
Hegins Township has another recycling site, at the municipal building, off Gap Street in Valley View. That site will remain operational. Raring said when the bins at Midway are removed, one or two may go to the Hegins Township Municipal Building site, if township supervisors approve. The other bins may be taken to Frailey Township, or to other locations within the county, as needed.
County-wide, there were 13,700 tons of materials recycled, through commercial and residential recycling efforts in 2011, according to Raring.