Pa. DEP Fines Haulers for Trashing Recyclables

“We want to send a clear message to the waste-hauling community that DEP will not tolerate them sending to landfills the recyclables that residents and businesses have taken time to prepare for pickup,” DEP Southwest Regional Director Ken Bowman says. “Pennsylvanians work hard to divert millions of tons of recyclables to manufacturers to generate new products rather than sending materials to landfills. We urge residents who witness the illegal mixing of recyclables with regular trash to report it immediately.”

Since the inception of the recycling program in 1988, DEP has funded more than $50 million in education and equipment grants to help southwestern Pennsylvania residents recycle.

In June, a DEP inspector witnessed his own residential recyclables being mixed in with the rest of the residential trash on the street in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County. The inspector interviewed the driver of the Waste Management Inc. of Pennsylvania truck to learn that the company allegedly had dispatched a driver to pick up missed pickups of waste and source-separated recyclables in the same vehicle. Subsequent DEP investigations and interviews revealed that this type of violation occurred periodically with missed pickups in the company’s North Huntingdon Division. Waste Management paid a fine of $16,000 for the violation.

County Hauling Corp. of Monongahela, Washington County, paid a $6,500 penalty for disposing of source-separated recyclables in California, Washington County. DEP originally learned of the incident from a newspaper report and interviewed a witness who previously complained to borough officials about an incident on July 2, when two County Hauling Corp. employees allegedly transferred source separated recyclables picked up from curbside into the back of a packer truck engaged in municipal waste collection. County Hauling Corp. officials admitted the violation, but blamed it on the employees’ failure to comply with company policy.

An investigation in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, revealed that Greenridge Waste Services allegedly regularly disposed of separated recyclables at a transfer station there, rather than dispatching a separate vehicle to properly recycle the materials. Greenridge Waste Services, owned by Allies Waste Services, paid a $16,000 penalty for the violations.

J.J. Brunner Inc. paid $2,500 for allegedly commingling recyclable waste in Ambridge, Beaver County, as part of a $41,250 penalty for other municipal waste violations. This commingling incident occurred in March 2004.

Residents may call (412) 442-4184 to report any problems with the illegal disposal of recyclables.

For more information on municipal waste inspections in Pennsylvania, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword: “DEP Municipal Waste.”