BUTLER TWP — A township man is on a mission to increase recycling in Butler County by allowing refuse service customers a choice in garbage and recycling providers.

Butler Township's Frank Motko said the township advertises for bids from waste hauling companies for a multiyear garbage and recycling contract.

The bid winner provides weekly garbage and recycling pickup for all single-family homes and duplexes in the township.

Motko said he noticed that many households in the township do not put out a recycling bin with their garbage on recycling night every other week. He said most of those households are placing their cans, bottles and plastic containers in the trash.

“I find that disturbing,” Motko said.

He then began talking to people putting out their garbage or even knocking on doors to talk to people with only garbage at the curb on recycle dates.

Most people, said Motko, put their recyclables in the trash because they resent being told by the township which refuse hauler they must use.

“I've heard some colorful language,” Motko said.

He said in America, companies should earn consumers' business and not be forced upon them by their municipality.

The specifications for Butler's current refuse contract states that the refuse company must raise awareness on recycling among customers.

“I have never seen this implemented,” Motko said. “No posters, no billboards, nothing.”

Motko said the apartment complexes in Butler Township, such as Whitestown Village and Forest Heights, are not required to recycle. He said multifamily units produce mountains of items that could be recycled, but are going into the trash.

Ed Kirkwood, Butler Township manager, said the garbage and recycling contract is for single family homes and buildings with fewer than three apartments.

While businesses and multifamily buildings are not included in the township's contract, they are still required to recycle, Kirkwood said.

Owners of apartment complexes are responsible for securing and maintaining a contract with a refuse and recycling hauler.

Kirkwood said apartment complexes typically have a large container for trash and another for recyclables.

He said the township has secured residential refuse contracts for the duration of his 10 years as manager and for many years before that.

“It's just been a long-standing policy,” Kirkwood said.

Motko said taverns and restaurants use large steel cans or oversized plastic jars, which they toss into the trash instead of recycling.

“That needs to stop,” he said. “Glass is forever. It doesn't decompose.”

Bars do not recycle glass bottles, but most collect and sell aluminum cans to a salvage facility, Motko said.

“I don't know of a single bar that throws away their aluminum cans,” he said.

He is in contact with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Salvation Army, which recently sent him 200 recycling flyers to post in public places to raise awareness on recycling electronics.

“I'm out for awareness,” Motko said, “and to make a difference.”

Edward R. Vogel, a vice president at Vogel Disposal, which has had the Butler Township trash and recycling contract for more than a decade, said when the company offers recycling services in other communities, they get an 80 percent to 85 percent positive response.

He said he feels most customers in the township separate the recyclables and put them in the bin every other week.

“I like to think most people do it,” Vogel said. “You're always going to have some people who don't want to or don't care.”

Vogel's recyclables are taken to the company's recycling plant, Tri County Recycling, in Adams Township. There, the various recyclables are separated, bundled and sold in the various markets.

While cardboard is always a reliable market where Vogel can sell the cardboard brought in to the processing center, the glass, metal and paper markets are up and down.

Vogel said he tries hard to avoid placing items in the landfill when a specific market is on a downswing or he can't find a buyer.

“If there's no market, we try very, very hard to find a market, and that's an absolute last resort,” he said.

He said unrinsed containers also attract animals to the landfill, which the company wants to avoid.

He said paper recyclers in China now want less than one-half percent of contaminants in the paper they buy from recycling centers.

The “contaminants” are traces of plastic, cardboard, paper or other items placed on the conveyor belt when recycled items are trucked in for separating.

“Things will straighten out eventually,” Vogel said.

In addition to the oddball items people put in the recycle bin, like brake rotors, knives and garden hoses, Vogel said plastic grocery bags have created such a problem that he ordered a vacuum system to suck them off the assembly line during the separation process.

Vogel wishes customers would take the bags back to the grocery or big box store for recycling. It's not feasible for him to add a plastic-bag recycling program because 40,000 pounds of bags are needed to recycle them.

“You get these grocery bags and everyone puts them in (the recycle bin) and you're never going to get people to stop using them,” Vogel said.

He said the center also processes all types of paper, which can become a problem when the market is down and tons of bundled mail, ads and other paper is sitting around.

“I know of some places with more than 1,200 tons of paper sitting around,” Vogel said. “I'm not going to get myself into that situation.”

If a buyer cannot be found for the bundles of paper, it is disposed of, Vogel said.

He said buyers do not want wet paper, which is a problem with customers who use a bin and not the 95-gallon recycle carts offered by Vogel.

“The mills don't want the paper to be wet,” he said.

Vogel said much of his job is working with equipment vendors trying to figure out better, more efficient ways to process the recyclables that arrive every day at the processing center.

“It's an interesting business and a challenge,” Vogel said, “but it does work.”