City officials in Spartanburg, SC, are considering whether to discontinue their recycling program because of high costs.
The city needs to buy four new trucks to continue the program, trucks that would cost $361,000.
"We're looking at the cost of delivering the service versus the benefits," said Mike Garrett, acting city manager. "It cost us a lot of money to offer the service."
The city spent $175,000 last year to separate the items.
Spartanburg first offered curbside pickup in 1993. Last year, the program generated 726 tons of recyclable materials.
The city might switch to a less expensive system, such as that operated by Spartanburg County, Garrett said.
County residents can take their waste to one of 17 attended centers and separate and dispose of their own recyclables.
While the county program is not as convenient as the city's, it pays for itself.
Last year, the county spent $230,000 collecting recyclables.
More than 8,000 tons of material were recycled, and the county collected $231,000 from the sale of the material. Herald JournalLatest from Recycling Today
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