Recycling by Rush Township residents has taken a serious dip, and that has supervisor Robert Leibensperger concerned.

If numbers don’t pick up, he said, residents will likely find themselves paying much more for their garbage and recycling collection services.

Recycling had measured between 1,100 and 1,200 metric tons annually a few years ago.

“We are down to 600 metric tons, which is a major drop,” he said. “It’s consistently dropping.”

The decrease means less money received from recycling facilities, and fewer dollars from state recycling grants. And with residents tossing their recyclables in the trash, it also means higher tipping fees at landfills.

“I need people to recycle. That’s the bottom line,” Leibensperger said.

He said that the township is at the end of a 5-year garbage collection and recycling contract with Tamaqua Transfer & Recycling, Inc. In July 2024, the township will seek bids from trash haulers, and the new contract will go into effect in February 2025.

Under the current contract, households pay $194 each year.

“The problem now is that with high inflation, the dollar is not worth a dollar. It is worth 65 cents. That coupled with the fact that our recycling is down means that the garbage is going to probably go to between $400 and $600 a year if I can’t get the people of Rush Township to recycle more and build up the numbers in 2023,” he said.

Leibensperger said that Tamaqua Transfer employees deposit residents’ recycling and garbage into the same truck, then separate recyclables from refuse at the Tamaqua Transfer Station.

“So when people see this (recyclables being combined with trash), they can’t get it into their head that they are still doing recycling,” he said. He guessed that it might have stopped some residents from recycling.

But he assured people that their recycling is going where it is supposed to go. After being sorted at the transfer station, things like paper, aluminum, glass and plastic, are taken to recycling facilities.

By not recycling, materials eventually end up in a landfill, and thus, the township incurs higher tipping fees.

“So that recycling ends up costing $16,000 to $20,000 more to be put into a landfill,” Leibensperger said. “That results in an added cost to the residents.”

He added that the township has an electronics recycling program, and takes items like washers, dryers and more, for no additional cost. The program is subsidized through Recycling Program Performance grants awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Other municipalities, Leibensperger said, often charge for the special services.

But again, he said, the township could lose the program because of its low recycling rates.

“We used to receive between $8,500 and $10,000” for the program, he said. “Last year we got around $5,600 and this year we are looking at $3,500 because people aren’t recycling. I can’t convince people to recycle. I need recycling to occur.”