All Ulster County, New York, residents will soon be able to combine plastic, glass and metal recyclables.
Under a new Resource Recovery Agency plan, gone are the days when residents had to separate items to be recycled.
A new system at the county recycling center does the sorting and the county could be counting more cash with more intake from haulers.
The agency says the new procedure could help the agency erase a $1 million annual budget deficit.
Six municipalities -- Kingston, Esopus, Saugerties, Ulster, Gardiner and Plattekill -- have already begun the program, and others will begin in September.
Gardiner resident Norma Mabee hadn't heard that she could stop separating her recyclables. She said it would be ''much easier'' under the relaxed rules, even though she's grown used to separating her recyclables now.
''It will be nicer to not to have to do all that,'' she said.
The $5 million Materials Recovery Facility on Route 32 in Kingston goes on line Monday. The sorting is done with a mostly automated system that uses electronic currents and automated hammers among other devices to discern metal and glass.
EXPECTING A PROFIT
The facility is expected increase the volume of recyclables -- by more than a third within two years -- because private waste haulers that can't afford to separate recyclables can now use the facility. It also expects to save $180,000 a year on transportation and rent costs.
''For the first time since we've been in the waste and recycling business, recycling might be profitable,'' said Charles Shaw, executive director of the Resource Recovery Agency.
The agency is independent of the Ulster County government, but county taxpayers bail it out if it runs in the red. The budget deficit for recycling has been about $1 million in past years.
No new jobs will be created by the system, but neither will any jobs be lost, Shaw said.
The changes have met criticism from two former recycling coordinators for the agency and from the former recycling coordinator for the Town of New Paltz.
They questioned the size of the savings the agency has touted, and they criticized the agency for shifting markets to balance its books -- without encouraging more recycling.
''People still have to realize that it's important and that you need to see a net increase that's diverted from the waste stream,'' said Emilie Hauser, a former agency recycling coordinator. ''I don't see any action going toward that.''
Shaw said the program is just good business.
''I respect people who treat it as a religion, but I also know that you just can't do it like a religion,'' Shaw said of recycling.