Beginning in January 2012 , a new firm, J. P. Mascaro & Sons headquartered in Audubon, PA, will be responsible for the township’s recycling program.
As the contract with the current contractor Suburban Waste Services is set to expire at year’s end, the commissioners had to make a decision on the program’s future.
The seven-member board had earlier ruled out bringing the program in-house once again or hiring a company to handle the weekly curbside pickups of co-mingled recyclables, as well as the collection of residential trash.
Those options being eliminated, the board had to choose among bidders for the recycling-only contract and did so at an early August meeting, selecting Mascaro, who was the low bidder, to handle the duties. The vote was 6 – 0 with one member abstaining due a conflict of interest.
The contract with Mascaro does not cover the provision of a dumpster for public use at the township public works yard on Brookhaven Road. The board will be addressing that issue in the future.
Currently Nether Providence Township residents pay residents pay a $68-per-year fee for the recycling service.
The Commissioners also discussed which size recycling container would work best for the program. The options of sizes discussed were 35, 48, and 65 gallon capacity containers. The township plans to make use of a $230,000 state grant it was awarded last year for its recycling program to purchase the new containers. A typical trash container is 34 to 48 gallons.
The board is inclined to recommend the use of the 65 gallon container, one reason being that studies have shown that larger containers encourage more recycling.
