To the Editor:

I don’t know if you are aware of what is being said and done to terminate Newtown’s Recycling Curbside pickup.

For the last three years, it seems the Recycling curbside pick up program has been a target to be terminated.

The claim by the Public Works department has been that only 40% of the households are participating.

Another claim has been that it’s 50% contaminated.

It was a kick in the gut to hear both. I’ve been a local private hauler for 34+ years and know those numbers are low.

Road by road, bin by bin, house by house, I recently counted and recorded the numbers in the two voting districts I cover in collection.

I did it for a month.

The first week was 61%. The highest I got was 69.57% in participation.

Each week is different depending on people’s schedules, their Recycling amounts, weather, school, etc.

The yearly tonnage I bring in is around 850 tons, or 1.7 million pounds.

The other company from Danbury, combined with my tonnage above, came to 1,513 tons, or a total of 3,026,000 pounds.

I say all this to share that across Newtown participation is much higher than the claimed 40%.

I understand not everyone will agree with the cost of such a service as some take it themselves to the transfer station.

Having said that, we have 6,000+ households using the services both companies provide.

The way it’s run now, it’s one truck, on a particular day, collecting on that street.

Should it be terminated, those same roads may have as many as four other trucks.

That will be more expensive for each household out of pocket, the hauler in purchasing new equipment, and what has been smoothly running, now up to each household who they may want or not want to collect their recycling

How it is now is much less confusing, less truck traffic, and impact on the environment is less too.

I understand we are trying to trim budgets and still maintain recycling.

Not everyone can afford a private hauler. Not every senior citizen will want to load up their vehicle and wait in line at the transfer station.

It costs the Town around $99 per household per year to maintain the recycling program as it is.

Without that, each household can expect to pay three times that amount each year for recycling collection if they hire a private hauler.

The bottom line I want to share is this: Instead of having a few people decide on the fate of the recycling program as it is, let the citizens have a voice in this.

Residents should attend meetings with this topic on the agenda and/or join me in contacting the First Selectman (203-270-4201 or jeff.capeci@newtown-ct.gov), the Ad Hoc Recycling Committee, Legislative Council, Board of Selectmen, and Board of Finance. The Town website has contact information for all those groups (newtown-ct.gov, then click on Government).

Sincerely,

Fred Pendergast

Sandy Hook