Northeast Cartage & Recycling Solutions in Hanover Township, seen here, will be raising the tipping fee for recyclables. Wilkes-Barre has been paying between $65 and $80 a ton. Under new ownership, the facility will begin charging $100 a ton starting next month.
Jerry Lynott | Times Leader
Per ton fee hiked to $100
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WILKES-BARRE — The introductory letter from the new owner of the facility where the city carts its recyclable paper, plastic and metal took a few paragraphs to get to the point it was raising the tipping fee for the materials next month to $100 a ton.
Wilkes-Barre has been paying between $65 and $80 a ton to Northeast Cartage & Recycling Solutions in Hanover Township, said City Administrator Charles McCormick.
The Nov. 1 cost hike will raise the annual expense to approximately $300,000, more than the $250,000 line item for tipping fees in the 2021 proposed general fund budget Mayor George Brown presented to city council last week.
The balanced $53.2 million budget proposal already doubles the annual residential recycling fee to $100 to account for what Brown said is the bottom falling out of the market and the higher cost of providing services.
Brown Tuesday stood firm on the additional $50 he’s seeking from residents for recycling.
“I’m hoping the extra dollar a week will offset it,” Brown said of the higher cost imposed by the company taking the recyclables.
In his letter dated Nov. 14 announcing the change in ownership, Jonas Kreitzer, municipal manager with the Ontario, Canada-based company GFL Environmental Inc. also noted “an unprecedented drop in the values of recycling commodities.”
Kreitzer did not return a message seeking comment.
The city received the letter on Monday, four days after Brown’s budget address. In it Kreitzer said the $100 per ton fee will go toward investing in the facility on Breaker Road and the people who work there.
“These economic realities necessitate an increase in the rates to drop-off single-stream recycling at our facility. Simply put, the cost of doing business in the area is increasing and we are doing the right thing for the community, our employees, and the sustainability of our facility,” Kreitzer said in the letter.
Last month publicly traded GFL Environmental announced it received antitrust approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for the company’s proposed acquisition of WCA Waste Corp. for $1.2 billion. The deal closed on Oct. 1 and expanded the company’s reach into the U.S.
The company’s U.S. market further grew through its agreement to buy assets divested in Waste Management’s acquisition of Advanced Disposal Services.
Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.