Proposal to Change Media Borough Recycling Collection Day Denied by Council

denied a proposal to change the recycling collection day at its meeting Thursday night.

Mascaro company asked the council to move recycling collection from two days a week to one day in the borough.

The council voted against the proposal with a 5 to 1 vote. Council President Pete Alyanakian voted for the change. Councilman Peter Williamson was absent from the meeting.

Alyanakian said the recycling collection proposal would move from both Tuesdays and Thursdays, where half of the borough is collected on each day, to Wednesdays for the entire borough.

Mascaro proposed to make this change starting January 2012.

Alyanakian said the change would not bring any cost savings to the borough but would make the process more efficient for Mascaro. He said the borough’s Environmental Advisory Committee and Highway Department were consulted on the proposal and both were OK with it.

The majority of the council members disagreed with Alyanakian.

Councilwoman Monica Simpson opposed the change because she said it was benefitting Mascaro not the residents.

She said residents would than have to haul their trash and recycling to the curb three days a week rather than two. Currently, trash and recycling are both collected on either Tuesdays or Thursdays depending which side of the borough you live.

"It’s a disservice to the community," she said. "It would be an eyesore to have trash cans out three days a week and the contract that we signed was for two-day pick up. Perhaps we can look at it again when their contract is up."

Councilman James Cunningham agreed with Simpson and said it works well the way it currently is because residents put out their recycling on the same day as a trash day.

Councilman Dr. Eric Stein also opposed the change because from the resident’s point of view it would require they put their trash/recycling out three days a week.

Alyanakian said he supported the change and didn’t see it as an inconvenience and it would cut down on noise pollution.

"It would cut down on trucks on the roads on our busiest days, Tuesdays and Thursdays," he said.