Electronics, waste recycler closes; events canceled
The company that contracted with the county to provide residents with recycling services for electronics and hazardous waste has closed.
Sheryl Kelly, the county's environmental specialist and recycling and farmland coordinator, announced that Environmental Coordination Services & Recycling (ECS&R) of Forward Township will immediately and permanently cease operations.
The two remaining recycling events planned by the county at the company's location near the intersection of Evans City and Ash Stop roads have been canceled, as have all 12 events scheduled for 2022.
ECS&R electronics and hazardous waste recycling events scheduled occasionally by municipalities also will cease.
Kelly said almost 858,000 pounds of hazardous waste and more than 1 million pounds of electronics have been recycled in the county by ECS&R since the company began contracting with the county in 2010.
She said the company owner told her labor shortages and increased prices from the facility that takes the waste are the reasons the company is shutting down.While the county has held electronics and hazardous waste recycling events since 2002, the program was expanded in 2010 to monthly collections that allowed residents to bring both types of waste to a single event.Kelly is hard at work trying to find another electronics and hazardous waste recycler to replace ECS&R.“We are working with other recycling coordinators on this side of the state,” she said.She said a private recycler in Adams Township, TC Recycling on Hutchman Road, takes some, but not all of the items that were accepted by ECS&R.Kelly hopes to have another contractor in place by the beginning of the year, but is unsure exactly when another recycler will be found.
