Recycling operations continue at pace with management change

Bud Patterson
Posted 2/24/17

Pull-up to the recycling center on Curtis Street and the first thing you’ll notice is that nothing has changed, even though operations were taken over by the City of Torrington from Diversified Services Inc. on Jan.1.

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Recycling operations continue at pace with management change

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TORRINGTON  –  Pull-up to the recycling center on Curtis Street and the first thing you’ll notice is that nothing has changed, even though operations were taken over by the City of Torrington from Diversified Services Inc. on Jan.1.
“There’s been no major changes at the center other to charge for pickups,” said COT Streets and Sanitation Supervisor Gary Korell, whose department is responsible for the recycling center. “There’s still no charge for material that is dropped off, but we need to try to recover some of our cost on pickups.”
However, the center hasn’t started pickups yet, since the city council hasn’t yet approved the proposed rates; $20 for in town pickups of 10 cubic yards with a minimum charge of $15 for five cubic yards or less and $25 for out of town pickups of 10 cubic yards and 55 cents per mile, round trip.
“This won’t recover our costs, but we tried to come up with a number that was palatable to everyone,” Korell said. “The last thing we want to do is discourage recycling and I wanted the city council to go into this with their eyes wide open and understand we weren’t going to cover our costs.”
Even with little chance for the recycling program to make any money, Korell believes taking it over was the right thing to do.

“We wanted to see the (DSI) clients stay active and employed,” he said. “And the city is required, under its permit with the Department of Environmental Quality, to recycle a certain percentage of our waste. Plus it will save space in our landfill.
“DSI did an excellent job with the clients and operation it was just unfortunate the feds stepped in and basically closed them down.”
While federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare didn’t require the recycling center to close, new policies prohibit disabled clients, like those at DSI, from working in sheltered workshops. Instead, new federal mandates require programs like DSI, who receive federal payments for services to disabled clients, to place clients that can work in public jobs that also hire non-disabled workers. It is a requirement that has affected programs across Wyoming and also led to DSI closing its auto detailing service.
“Currently, we have four DSI clients and two job coaches working full-time at the recycling center,” explained Korell. “We also hired Barry Baird, who ran the center for DSI, and has been a big assist during the transition.
“It has been a good thing for (the city) to do. I’m amazed at the traffic in-and-out of here. On Monday morning all the bins will be full. It’s amazing.”
About once a month, Korell’s crew hauls an 18-wheeler full of recycled material to WYCO Recycling in Cheyenne, a load that weighs approximately 35,000 pounds.
“We took our first truck to WYCO and our check was for $1,000,” Korell said. “There’s not much profit in recycled material right now.”
But, looking around the yard he sees a couple of employees crushing cans and adds, “But we needed to step up. I’m glad we did this. The most important thing was to keep these folks working
and active.”