Gastonia residents will no longer have the convenience of curbside recycling after Oct. 26.
City officials offered two primary reasons for cutting the city service it has offered since 2012: The first being cost, while the second is that city residents never fully caught on to the importance of not contaminating recyclables with everything from liquid left over in bottles to mixing regular trash with recyclable materials.
While only about 35 percent of the city’s households took advantage of curbside recycling, those who did are often passionate about its value and benefits.
“You want to know what’s less cost effective?” Gastonia resident Heather Burks asked on her Facebook page this morning. “Destroying the planet for future generations. Wow.”
A unanimous City Council voted to stop curbside recycling Tuesday night.
“This is something we’ve been struggling with for several years in Gastonia,” City Manager Michael Peoples said.
Nearby cities, including Shelby, Kings Mountain and Bessemer City, all have recently ended curbside recycling efforts for similar reasons.
Alternative plans
Although curbside recycling will end, Gastonia has plans to boost its recycling centers.
The recycling center at the Farmers Market, located at 410 E. Long Ave., will continue to be open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Gastonia also expects to open a new a new drop-off center on Duke Street, behind Publix, in southeast Gastonia, by June 2021.
Recycling will still be available, but will require more effort.
Instead of pushing a city-provided cart to the curb, city residents will now be asked to load their recyclables into their vehicles and drive them to either the city drop-off sites or the county’s recycling centers.
More work, better results?
While hauling recyclable materials to a drop-off site will be more work for environmentally-aware residents, there might be a better payoff in the end.
Under the existing program, most of the city’s recycling efforts ended up in the landfill anyway.
For example, in the fiscal year that ended June 30, city contractors collected 3,500 tons of material in the recycling stream. But 60 percent of that amount was contaminated and therefore had to go to the landfill anyway, according to city officials.
“It’s just a shame that our best is not good enough to continue the service,” Peoples said. “It’s completely discouraging.”
Using a drop-off site may lessen the percentage of contaminated material.
City carts
City residents are asked to leave their empty recycling carts at the curb by Oct. 26.
City workers will pick up the carts before Nov. 20.
If there are questions, residents should call 704-869-1064 and refer to the city’s WasteWise app for more information.
Gastonia paid Republic Services about $1.1 million a year to pick up curbside recyclables.
At one time, Republic could boost its earnings by selling the recyclable product, but changes in the industry due to contamination has made that less profitable.
