By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The private trash and recycling sector has been responding to the recent closure of Kosciusko County’s residential recycling drop-off sites.

In November 2022, the Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District Board voted to close all nine of the county’s unsupervised residential recycling drop-off sites. This was due to the board receiving bids for recycling contracts that were exceptionally high due to extreme increases in costs for fuel, transportation and labor. Material contamination at the satellite drop-off areas was also a serious issue.

Borden Waste-Away Service Inc., Elkhart, is offering subscription-based, curbside recycling services county-wide. Those services cost $8 a month. Borden representatives have indicated to Kosciusko County’s Solid Waste Management District Board subscription service signup has been going well in the county.

The county’s solid waste management board is continuing to encourage the use of any subscription curbside options.

Kosciusko County Recycling Depot Director Tom Ganser said the private sector has been responding to the closures. Stafford’s Solid Waste is now offering a drop-off location at its Warsaw office for cardboard, mixed paper, and tin and aluminum cans.

“I am encouraged to see our local town leadership teams looking into recycling, and have shared statistics from our program with them,” said Ganser. “Recycling programs can be an expensive endeavor that most people don’t realize. The majority of people we talk to believe recycling programs are a revenue producing program. This has not been the case in the last 40 years. While programs did see rebates for commodities like cardboard and mixed paper, it was minimal as compared to the costs of collection and processing an entire recycling program. Recycling is not cheap — it takes time and effort from everyone to do it the right way.

“I believe we will see local businesses start to recycle at their place of business,” continued Ganser. “Expanding their waste services to include recycling may save some of these businesses money. As these businesses look at options to handle their recycling volume I believe we will see an increase in business recycling in our community. With time and improved commodity markets we are sure to see other private sector haulers enter back into providing recycling service.”

The site closures have been brought up at some local council meetings. During a Jan. 9 session, Leesburg Town Council discussed the closure of the drop-off sites. At that meeting, Clerk-Treasurer Mike Searfoss said without a town-wide contract, Borden representatives would need to know how many households would be interested in their services.

A survey was issued to see how many households would be interested in recycling services; Searfoss said more people responded ‘no’ than ‘yes.’

The town of Syracuse includes recycling in their trash pick-up, which residents are billed for.

Claypool’s council is looking into recycling options for the town.

Warsaw’s recycling depot at 220 S. Union St. is also continuing to accept HHW items and provide educational services.