GOSHEN — It’s quite possibly a last-ditch attempt at a countywide recycling drop-off center as the city of Goshen received canisters over the weekend for the new recycling site at 802 N. Indiana Avenue.
About two years ago, the cities within Elkhart County attended a meeting where they learned that the recycling program wasn’t going as intended and they were in the process of eliminating the sites.
Goshen city agreed to put a recycling center in city limits and manage it themselves. They chose the location at Indiana Avenue, across from the Waste Water Treatment Plan so that the employees there can keep an eye on it.
“They’re going to provide the day-to-day oversight,” he explained. “A lot of the sites have not had that and it’s been one of the downfalls: dumping.”
Another way the city will attempt to deter dumping — cameras will timestamp vehicles entering the location and snap a photo of the license plate as the vehicle leaves. An ordinance will be presented to Goshen City Council that will allow fining of anyone who dumps on the site.
“It’s not that we don’t have faith, but we want to encourage people to participate well,” Sailor said.
In fact, the site is designed so that it can be, for the most part, easily removed if it’s not cared for. The driveway is pavement milling, or crushed asphalt.
“This is a dry test run to see if it’s going to work or not,” Sailor said.
Signs will also be positioned with specific information in English and Spanish about items permitted and not permitted at the site, so there will be little margin for error. No electronics, batteries, plastic bags, hoses, cords, or strings will be permitted. Cardboard will mixed into the regular recycling, which is processed at the same Materials Recovery Facility that other recycling already goes to. Sailor explained that many of the items prohibited can entangle in the machinery at the facility.
Karen Mackowiac, Goshen, was at the site Tuesday. Mackowiac lives just outside of city limits, so she doesn’t have the option of curbside recycling and relied on the county-provided locations to keep up with her home recycling.
“I’ve talked with several people that have been waiting for this to be around,” she said. “I think this is kind of progressive step for the city, realizing that they have curbside recycling already, but to provide that opportunity for those of us who don’t have curbside recycling to be able to still continue to recycle. I’m ecstatic about it.”
A member of the solid waste advisory committee for many years, Mackowiac said she was upset when she learned that the county would no longer be providing the recycling drop-off centers.
Mackowiac said as soon as it was announced, she contacted her trash company to find out how much it would cost to have recycling picked up at her house, only to discover it was an unattainable cost for her.
“I think with the county deciding not to have the drop-off centers anymore, I think it’s going to discourage people to recycle,” she said.
Still, the county recycling program was not without its problems. Days after the containers were removed from behind the Martin’s Supermarket on Bashor Road, Mackowiac discovered a plethora of debris and what appeared to be home renovation byproduct at the former home of one of the county’s last recycling drop-off sites.
“They actually were removed early at the Martin’s site,” Sailor explained. “They were supposed to be removed at the end of the month and right after those were removed, someone went over there and dumped. It looks like they cleaned out a whole house. There was beds, there was toilets, and they threw it all behind Martin’s. People cannot do that, and we hope they don’t do it here.”
The canisters currently at the site are temporary, Sailor explained, as the company that was awarded the program, Republic, waits for the permanent canisters to arrive. It’s expected that the permanent canisters will be the 6-8 cubic yard ones, as at the old recycling sites, and there will be 10 of them. The rest of the city trash and recycling goes through Borden, who also held the previous countywide recycling program, but its bid was too high to be awarded the city’s new recycling drop-off site.
Elkhart County contributed $50,000 to the project, but it’s being maintained solely by the city of Goshen, which also did much of the labor in the construction of the location in-house, rather than contracting it out in order to save money, and the agreement is for five years.
Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 574-538-2065.
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