Emmet Recycling might charge a fee for hazardous waste drop-off this year
EMMET COUNTY — In a press release on Monday, the Emmet County Department of Public Waste and Recycling announced that the department may not be able to offer its household hazardous waste collection service for free this year due to increased costs.
In past years, the service was free to Emmet County residents, with the cost being covered by the fees residents pay for garbage disposal. Anyone outside of the county is charged $2 per pound for disposal.
Hazardous waste drop-off is scheduled twice per year and drop-offs are made by appointment. Emmet County Recycling doesn’t have the means of disposing of materials like lead and oil-based paint, mercury, pesticides, as well as other chemicals. For this reason, it hosts the drop-off days where a company that disposes of these chemicals collects them.
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“We've worked with a company that's certified and licensed to haul hazardous waste, so their fees for coming up and transporting have gone up exponentially,” said Noelle Behling, communication and education coordinator.
According to Behling, costs for this service have gone up 50 percent in the last year due to factors like rising gas prices and inflation. In an attempt to continue to offer the service without charge, Behling said the recycling center applied for a grant through the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation and will find out in May if they received the funding.
The department will continue to evaluate its funding each year and hope to offer the service for free again.
“We want to help the community and make sure we're keeping all of these hazardous things out of our watershed,” Behling said. “But it's just gotten to the point where we need to supplement that cost.”
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While the service has always been free, Behling said many people offered donations when they dropped off their waste. If a fee is implemented, she doesn’t think it will have much of an effect on the number of people who participate in the drop-off.
Donations were usually around $20 per car, according to Behling, but the cost to the department tends to be around $80 per car. If a fee is added to the service it will likely be small to offset the additional cost to the department, not cover it entirely.
“People are already pretty generous and helping,” Behling said. “I think if there's a small fee that people will still come because the whole idea behind it really matters to people. It's not just being able to dispose for free — people care about our environment, keeping our lakes fresh and clean.”
Currently, the planned household hazardous waste drop-off days are Tuesday, June 20 and Saturday, Sept. 30. The times will be announced in early May on the department’s social media, website and in a newspaper notice. The link to sign up for appointments will also be posted at that time. Additional information about the drop-off days and a list of accepted materials, including unidentified chemicals, can be found on the department website.
— Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Emmet Recycling says hazardous waste drop-off might now have a fee
