CLEARFIELD – Clearfield County and Novey Recycling will begin working together as part of the county’s recycling program.
At Tuesday’s workshop meeting, the commissioners approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and Novey Recycling.
Director Jodi Brennan of the Clearfield County Solid Waste Authority said the CCSWA had to downsize the number of its recycling drop-off sites. As a result, it had to switch to a centralized site at the county jail.
According to her, Advanced Disposal is the county’s vendor for the drop-off site through the integrated solid waste management plan. Advanced Disposal has suggested the county also work with a local recycler, she said.
“It will save us some money, too,” said Brennan. She said Novey Recycling has agreed to work with the county on a trial basis. “It’s great for both Novey Recycling and the county.”
In addition to tires and appliances, Brennan said the county’s centralized drop-off site will now take paper products, glass bottles and cans. The centralized site, she said, is now going to be a “one-stop shop” for recycling.
In the meantime, she said there are plans to continue working with Advanced Disposal to potentially bring back more recycling drop-offs around September.
They are looking to add a drop-off for each of the southern, northern, eastern and western areas of the county, along with keeping the current centralized site, Brennan said.
She noted the CCSWA office takes calls daily from residents about how to dispose of their old television sets.
Brennan said current law bans old television sets from being put in landfills. In addition, she said recyclers aren’t interested in taking them, which has created a great problem.
According to her, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has called upon legislators, original equipment manufacturers, electronics processors, etc., to work together to ensure every resident has access to convenient and affordable waste disposal and recycling options.
She said “pre-made letters” are available on the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Web site for residents to send to their legislators to ask them to fix the current problem. The current problem, Brennan said, has residents setting their old television sets in their garages or on front porches and resorting to illegal dumping.
Brennan noted there is currently legislation in the works in both the House and Senate. However, she said there wasn’t any consensus. “It wouldn’t fix the problem. It might improve things, but it wouldn’t fix things completely,” she said.
Later, she said other legislation was also in the works for municipalities to charge a fee, which would be similar to the old tipping fee. She pointed out that it excluded counties from doing so.
Commissioner John A. Sobel complimented Brennan and the CCSWA for their efforts. He said they have been criticized for downsizing the recycling program due to rising costs and decreases in funding.
He said they have gone out of their way to think outside of the box, to be creative and really try to address issues under very difficult circumstances.
Commissioner Mark B. McCracken concurred, adding they needed to be critical of Harrisburg, which has failed to address the problem. While it was encouraging to hear of legislation in the works, he said it wasn’t comprehensive enough, and counties needed the resources and funding to complete the task they were charged with.
