Recycling Price Hike Could Hit Mansfield

MANSFIELD, MA — Residents should expect for the cost of recycling to go up in Mansfield, according to town officials.

DPW Director Lee Azinheira told the selectmen last week that the possible cost hike is due to China, which used to take half of America's recycling but decided last July to only accept recycling with 0.5 percent contamination, compared to the previous rate of 5 percent.

Azinheira called the new limit, “almost impossible to obtain.”

Also hurting Mansfield is the closure of the company that accepted their glass recycling, meaning that the only place to take recycled glass in Massachusetts is a place in Raynham which crushes it to be used as an aggregate for paving.

Azinheira added that Waste Management, the company that picks up trash in recycling in town, has to remove 15 percent of rubbish from the stream and that has led to a staffing increase.

“The whole system we’ve come to accept...is really because of the China policy, is in jeopardy,” Selectman Neil Rhein said. “People are going to be shocked (at the price increase) and these numbers are just the beginning.

Despite the cost, Mansfield plans to keep to recycling.

"There is the major policy initiative worldwide of what we should be doing as good stewards of planet Earth. Why should we put something into a landfill when we’re running out of space when these goods can be repurposed into a new item?" Town Manager Kevin Dumas said.

Azinheira is in talks with Waste Management about extending their contract past 2020 as part of an effort to minimize any possible price hikes.

Selectmen Steve Schoonveld recommended creating a Facebook page to update residents on the latest when it comes to what can be recycled.

Image Credit: Dan Libon/Patch