Specially equipped bins will allow BPU to offer monthly $10 credit to residents that recycle
JAMESTOWN – Residents who get their garbage picked up by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities will be getting special new recycling bins starting this week and continuing for the next several weeks. The new bins are part of the BPU’s new Residential Recycling Credit Program, which will go into effect on March 24 and will serve as an incentive to get more residents to recycle.
During Monday Night’s Jamestown City Council work session, BPU General Manager David Leathers – along with several other BPU representatives – talked about the new program with city officials. Leathers says the program was developed because, currently, only about 35 percent of the city’s estimated 12,000 solid waste customers recycle.
“There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about our customers not recycling frequently enough and I think it got to the point where there was different ideas about penalties, getting the city inspectors involved and ticketing. But I think the team has come up with a great solution which is really a credit program to incentivize people to recycle,” Leathers said. “We hop that we’re going to increase from a 35 percent contribution range to a much higher customer participation rate.”
BPU officials say the program will involve electronic scanners located in each recycling bin that are scanned whenever a customers bin is emptied by solid waste customers. If the customer is recycles each month, they will have $10 taken off their monthly garbage rate – which will be increased to $20 starting in March in anticipation of the new recycling credit program.
Leathers also says that the BPU is anticipating some questions from BPU customers during the first few months the new program is implemented, adding that his staff will be ready to handle any increase in calls to the BPU offices.
“Customer service is one of the busiest departments we have,” Leathers said. “They’re prepared to field calls and we’ve also added some additional head count to try and answer questions on a timely basis. We hope that we’re responsive to people’s questions and they’re not getting put into voicemails. Hopefully the can connect with somebody, get and answer and we can move on.”
The BPU says each of the new orange recycling bins will be unique to the individual address that receives a monthly bill, so residents are encouraged to keep track of their unique orange bins. If customers have more than one bin of recyclables for any given week, they can use the old yellow recycling bins. No other changes to the recycling program is set to take place and residents will follow their usual recycling schedule.
Again, the new orange bins will starting going out to customers over the next few weeks, with the recycling credit program going into effect starting March 24.
Residents with questions can learn more by visiting www.JamestownBPU.com or by calling customer service at 661-1663.
Is this just for the city of Jamestown? Great idea, everyone should recycle or pay a penalty!