Automated collection under review
By Matt Bouton, Staff Writer
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Residents of McCandless may soon use carts designed for automated
pick up to dispose of their recyclables and yard waste.
The Town of McCandless joined eight other municipalities in the
North Hills area, under the North Hills Council of Governments
(COG), in filing for a competitive grant from the Department of
Environmental Protection.
The DEP grant would cover, in whole or in part, procurement and
deployment of recycling and yard waste carts.
Assistant town manager Rege Ebner explains the sudden push for
this funding by saying, "application is to the DEP, and the
particular grant that funds this type of purchase will not be
available in the future."
Wayne Roller, North Hills COG executive director, said although
the grant is competitive, the applicants have unanimously expressed
an "all-for-one, one-for-all" stance, which would reduce funding to
the municipalities that win the grant to allow partial funding for
the ones that don't.
As a result, each municipality ultimately funds an equal
percentage of their costs. Roller said the goals of the DEP program
are to increase recycling, and stop reusable yard wastes from
entering landfills where they wastefully occupy precious space.
"The coming trend will lengthen the life of landfills, and save
haulers turnover of manpower as well as labor and insurance costs,"
explains Roller.
Only one person is required to operate the automated hauler truck
that plucks the waste from the curbside carts.
Naturally, the downside is the cost of specialized equipment
necessary to begin the operation, which is needed to start the
project.
Over time, though, the project should hold costs down overall.
To support this view, Roller cites the success of a similar
project in Cranberry Township, where automated pick-up systems have
already been implemented.
Roller said Pine, Marshall, and Richland townships are
considering to implement residential recycling and yard waste pickup
within the next year.
Residents of McCandless and the other four North Hills COG
communities have at least two years before they begin putting the
carts on the curb.
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