The State College Borough Council is expected to discuss a report today about the changes to the borough’s trash and recycling collection service, currently set to take effect April 1, State College Mayor Elizabeth Goreham said.
Food scraps are not currently recycled, but will be combined with other forms of organic refuse under the new system, Public Service Manager Edward Holmes said. This will lead to more waste being recycled and composted, with less material going to landfills, Holmes said.
The system will use newly-purchased automated collection trucks and new waste containers that will be delivered to borough homes starting the week of March 25, Goreham said. The trucks will pick up containers in a similar way to a forklift, meaning refuse collection workers won’t need to exit the vehicle.
The new system grew out of a test program where parts of two State College neighborhoods participated in a recycling program expanded to include food scraps, Holmes said.
This test program was extremely successful and exceeded the borough’s expectations, Goreham said. Council member Peter Morris said that residents put the program into effect much quicker than originally anticipated.
The new system is optional for borough residents, though roughly 75 percent of residents are participating, Holmes said.
“It’s a really good thing for the borough to be doing,” Morris said. “This isn’t being done in very many places on the East Coast yet, so we’re hoping to set a trend.”
Today, council will also hear reports on police staffing levels and the Centre Tax Agency, Goreham said.
