recycling
| CLOSURE NOTICE
Windsor closes recycling center after analysis BYCUYLER MEADE
The Town of Windsor Recycling Center is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Windsor
T
he city of Windsor is closing its recycling center after an analysis showed it was being somewhat lightly used and was costing the town more money than it was worth. Windsor public works director Eric Lucas said the town expected to save about $120,000 annually with the move, money that it desperately needed to reallocate elsewhere as the pandemic ravaged the town’s budget. “We’ll save, but those dollars, with COVID and not knowing the economy, we’re able to not spend that money but we’re fully expecting a decrease in revenues on other lines,” Lucas said. “So it’s not like we’re sticking it in a bank account. It’s going to offset some other areas where revenues are down.” Lucas said the town had been looking at the recycling center critically since at least 2018, when they closed the old brush dumping site because they determined that was costing the town about $100,000 a year just to chip brush. 10 |
mywindsor | MAY 2020
“We got out of the brush business and moved the recycling over to the public services campus where parks and public works are housed,” Lucas said. “Reopened in ‘19 and again started tracking usage. Resident-only, free to drop off glass and cardboard, all that. We really averaged, on the low side, about 20 cars a day, and high side about 40. A lot were repeat visitors, and, really, doing the math, it was about 4% of the households coming here to the site.” Lucas said the town reached out to private recycling companies Waste Management and Bunting to ask about their recycling coverage via their curbside recycling services. “They’re serving a vast majority of neighborhoods,” he said. “So we looked at dollars and cents, knowing it’s not popular — we want to do the right thing with cardboard and plastic, glass, not just landfill it. But the commodity market is basically zero. You could spend all the money you want on recycling but it doesn’t go anywhere. Nobody’s turning it into
something else anymore. It used to be, but that’s gone away. All we’re doing is spending money, there’s no revenue back at all.” Lucas acknowledged it was a shame on a larger scale to do this, but said it was just good sense. “We want people to recycle,” he said. “Help save the Earth, help our environment, but nothing’s happening with the product. I hope maybe one day somebody will figure out a way to do it that makes sense.” The town owns a compactor that was set to be replaced this year, and avoiding that cost is a positive for the department, too, Lucas said. “The rest is just big trash bins and we have fencing that we’ll repurpose,” Lucas said. Lucas said he’s seen the frustration after the announcement Tuesday from those who have appreciated the center. “We recognize it’s an impact,” he said. “And we still want people to recycle, but to use a private service and not the town’s anymore.”
ALEX McINTYRE
