Recycling Up, Landfill Trash Down
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- A Hagerstown official says the city has seen a 130 percent increase in recycling tonnage since the single-stream program went into effect.
City Engineer Rodney Tissue also says the amount of trash the city dumps at landfills has decreased by about 1,000 tons a year.
Tissue detailed the recycling program's success at last week's City Council meeting.
The engineer says Hagerstown had been paying nearly $60 per ton for trash disposal, but now pays $42 per ton.
The single-stream recycling program began in January 2012. It features weekly pickups, in which paper, plastic and metal can be placed in one container without being sorted.
The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown reports that in 2010, average monthly recycling tonnage was 82 tons. That number reached 212 tons in 2012-13.
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