East Rockaway officials working to temper recycling confusion

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Since the Village of East Rockaway’s Department of Public Works stopped collecting all recyclables at once in January, resident Vicki Perlman said she has noticed that at least three of the houses she passes on her daily drive to the Centre Avenue train station usually have the wrong recyclables out. She also noted that about 75 percent of the houses do not have any items out for a truck to collect at all, likely because of confusion created by an amended schedule for pick ups.
The changes began when the department’s regular truck — which had the ability to pick up all recyclables at once because it had separate compartments to sort them — was deemed unusable because of damage. That caused the village to release a schedule where only certain items would be picked up on specific days. To ease the confusion, village officials say they are looking for a way to once again collect all the recyclables at once.
“We’re looking to see if we can go back towards single stream,” said Kevin Conklin, the supervisor of the Department of Public Works.
Getting a used truck that could sort recyclables — paper, plastic and glass — is an expensive venture, but it is an option village officials are looking into every day, according to Conklin. If they do, not only would residents be able to put out all recyclables at the same time, but the village would also make more money from the recycling facility that processes the waste. “It’s not worth anything right now to crush glass,” Conklin said.
He added that the village is working to get a used single-stream truck before the 2018 budget goes into effect, and can do so as soon as the recycling facility gives village officials permission to go back to a single-stream recycling schedule like the one that was in effect before January.

The village could no longer use the old truck because it was unable to be serviced and its engine was seriously damaged. So, in January, the village started to use a smaller vehicle that does not have two separate compartments for the different types of recyclables, forcing residents to have to separate their own plastic and glass. “It’s changing something that was the same way for years,” Conklin said.
The changes created confusion for many residents, each of whom received a color-coded chart in January explaining which recyclables would be collected each week. However, Conklin noted, some residents may have thrown away or misplaced the chart. Residents may also get confused when their recycling day falls on a holiday, he said. In that case, the recycling would be picked up on the following week, according to the Village of East Rockaway’s website
Perlman said that the confusion is causing people to put out the wrong recyclables each week. “If one person makes a mistake, other people are following,” she said.
The full recycling schedule is posted on the village's website here.