Otsego Township board members agreed to adjust the rate it pays recycling hauler Chef Container LLC to handle residents’ curbside pickup.
The increase of 45 cents per ton will result in the township paying approximately $60 more per month for the service. It passed unanimously, retroactive to June 1, as proposed by clerk Cindy Hunt, supported by board trustee Rick Moll.
Chef Container president Kim Buckley thanked the board for its consideration.
“We’ve been going down this road with several customers; we started many contracts in 2012 and almost immediately the market for recycled materials dropped dramatically—we’re talking 50 percent or more.
“With the exception of fuel costs, which have improved, we’ve been subsidizing the service. The contract does not require you to do this; we bid it this way and we’ll honor that if that’s what you want to do.”
He added that Kent County’s recycling center similarly raised its rates after posting a recent $1.6 million deficit.
Board trustee Lori Bumgart said she did not agree the township should bear the entire burden of the costs.
“I understand the situation you’re in; I feel for you,” she said. “I guess I feel like we should split it. It’s not your fault and it’s not our fault the price dropped out.”
Hunt’s first suggestion had been to make the price increase retroactive to April; Bumgart suggested switching that to June and they agreed.
Before the vote, board trustee Karen Burns asked what would happen if the market continued to drop on recyclable materials.
“If it stops being a market, do we (as a nation) stop recycling?” she posited.
Buckley said Chef Container provides a variety of recycling services to approximately 10 municipalities in Allegan County and was formed with the purpose of diverting materials away from landfills.
“That’s a big question,” he said. “I guess it’s going to be up to individuals who are willing to pay for the service. But generators of material are also beginning to pay... especially industrial companies. They’re very concerned about their footprint in the long-term. It’s a global market.
“In my personal opinion, Allegan County has done a tremendous job for a pretty rural county. Generally speaking, once you get into areas that lose population density, it’s difficult to do single stream recycling.”
Otsego Township’s curbside service currently allows participating residents to recycle newspaper, magazines, junk mail, paper, aluminum cans, glass bottles, steel cans, aerosol cans plastic bottles, plastic bags and cardboard boxes in curbside, 96-gallon carts.
The township hall also has a drop-off bin for used household batteries.
Township treasurer Joan Squibbs said 1,426 households currently participate and have paid the optional $25 surcharge for the service. Going forward, now that a ballot proposal has passed that created a $36 surcharge for every household, she said there were potentially 1,791 parcels that could have to pay the surcharge. She stressed that number likely included many vacant parcels and that she would have to go through the list to make sure each household was assessed the surcharge only once.
In other business, board members approved spending $23,387 out of the road fund to place Grade 21AA gravel on Hill Road, totaling just over 1 mile.
Hunt said heavy traffic, including the gravel trains, had been detrimental to the road.
“Hopefully with the better grade of gravel, it’ll last longer,” she said.
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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