HARRISBURG — The collection of recyclables is considered an essential service, exempt from Gov. Tom Wolf’s mitigation order shutting down most businesses statewide.
Nevertheless, some recycling programs are scaling back over concerns about exposing workers to coronavirus on discarded material.
The Lycoming County Solid Waste Authority stopped accepting recycled materials from recycling dropoff locations over concerns about coronavirus, but the facility hopes to resume the service, said Jason Yorks, director of the county’s resource management service.
Those concerns were two-fold, he said. For one, the county relies on work-release inmates to sort the recycled materials and the county stopped releasing the inmates, so they weren’t available, Yorks said.
The hand-sorting process is needed to remove material tossed into the bin that isn’t recyclable, and there are usually 20 to 25 people sorting “in a tight area” that doesn’t allow for social distancing.
Second, the guidance available to county officials wasn’t clear on how long coronavirus might linger on waste products, he said. Some estimates, including research published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, indicate coronavirus can be a hazard for as much as three days.
Yorks said some recycling collection facilities have been working around those concerns by letting the waste sit for a period of time before sorting it.
Lycoming County — which also takes recyclable materials from dropoff locations in Union and Snyder counties and part of Northumberland County — just decided to close down recycling for the time being, he said.
It’s not clear how many recycling programs have dialed back their services or stopped them entirely. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania said it hasn’t been tracking the issue.
In Pennsylvania, communities with more than 5,000 residents are required to provide recycling service.
“Many recycling programs and materials recovery facilities in Pennsylvania want to keep going, and are,” said Deborah Klenotic, a Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman.
Because recycling has been deemed an essential service by the state, communities that are required to provide the service can’t stop it without getting DEP approval, Klenotic said.
“Our regional offices evaluate these requests on a case by case basis to determine whether to approve,” she said. “Statewide, we’ve evaluated and approved three requests to suspend operations and one to modify, all related to protecting safety.”
In many smaller communities, recycling isn’t mandatory, but the local government has been offering the service. In those cases, the local officials don’t need state permission to halt the recycling service if they are concerned about exposing workers to coronavirus, she said.
A representative of a trade group representing recyclers said the industry has practices in place to safely managing recycled materials despite the coronavirus outbreak.
“While there may be local decisions being made related to recycling programs, our industry continues to collect and process recyclables as part of essential sanitation services,” said Tracy Pawelski, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Waste Industry Association.
John Finnerty reports from the Harrisburg Bureau for The Meadville Tribune and other Pennsylvania newspapers owned by CNHI. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @cnhipa.
