According to officials with the Southeastern Chester County Refuse Authority, the recycling operation in Chester County is in jeopardy due to bad recycling habits of local residents, writes Fran Maye for the Daily Local News.

Once a batch arrives to the recycling processing facility at SECCRA off Route 926 in West Grove, it usually contains a non-compatible mixture of items, such as solid pizza boxes, broken glass, and half-empty bottles of cooking oil.

“What happens is the mixed paper ends up getting really contaminated by all the liquids and broken glass,” said Scott Mengle, general manager of the SECCRA landfill. “The whole thing will get landfilled.”

Also, all recycling is single stream now, so the material has to be hand sorted on the recycling line. This adds to the cost of recycling, which is passed on to the consumer.

“I would say we are very close to a crisis,” said Mengle. “If it is more expensive to recycle than to put in a landfill, people just aren’t going to recycle.”

SECCRA officials are addressing the issue proactively, with a campaign to educate residents on proper recycling methods. Furthermore, SECCRA may no longer accept glass for recycling.

Read more about the county’s recycling issue in the Daily Local News here.

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