Borough Electronics Recycling Event Would Be Costly, Council Told

Many residents of Hellertown borough want to recycle their outdated electronics and doing so responsibly helps to prevent them from ending up in landfills or littered along roadsides, but the price tag for hosting an e-recycling event is high, borough council was told Monday.

Borough manager Cathy Hartranft reported that if the borough were to host a three-hour electronics recycling event in Dimmick Park on a weekend the cost would be $1,600.

Responsible Recycling Services LLC of Kutztown would be the recycler.

The company would provide two trucks to haul away everything from old tube TV sets to old cell phones to air conditioners, but for many of the most commonly recycled items residents will be charged a per-item fee.

A third truck would cost another $800. And, if the borough doesn’t charge residents a fee to recycle items at the event, RRS will tack on a 48 cent-per-pound surcharge the borough would have to pay, Hartranft said.

Borough councilman Kevin Lott suggested that the borough educate residents about where they can recycle old electronics on its website and via social media. The borough has already been proactive doing that, Hartranft responded.

“It is not cheap,” said Mayor David Heintzelman, of electronics recycling.

Heintzelman has previously co-hosted with realtor Cheyenne Reiman an electronics recycling event in the parking lot at the funeral home he owns.

He said that for that event Responsible Recycling Services need “four or five trucks” to haul away all of the items that were brought to it by residents.

“I know you’re going to use more than two trucks,” he told council.

Borough council president Tom Rieger said there is money in the borough’s sanitation budget to help fund an electronics recycling event, but council decided to look at ways it might be able to bring the total cost down by organizing something in-house with the assistance of public works staff.