Could recycling eventually return to Franklin Township in some capacity?

Resident Larry Williams asked the board of supervisors on Tuesday if it had any intentions of bringing recycling back.

“I realize it was a problem,” Williams said. “It really does increase the garbage.”

Board Chairman Jason Frey told Williams the board hasn’t entirely ruled it out.

“It’s something we’re thinking of revisiting at some point,” Frey said. “I think we’d like to get it back, but the way it was going, it was costing too much.”

After taking various steps to preserve it, supervisors in April agreed to discontinue the township’s recycling center.

Supervisor Robin Cressley said at that time that while closing the recycling center wasn’t an easy decision, leaving it open wouldn’t be fiscally responsible.

Frey noted at that time items such as couches and foosball tables have been placed in the bins at times, and believed it was people coming from outside the township.

In the months leading up to the board’s decision, supervisors said that the recycling must have the proper symbols, and stressed that recycling was for township residents only.

In February, supervisors said that the recycling bins were still being contaminated with plastic bags and some garbage.

Supervisors in June 2019 reminded township residents to not place any kind of plastic bags in the recycling dumpsters.

It was noted that trash of any kind should not be placed in the recycling bins, as the township was charged an extra $2,000 in May 2019 due to the bins being contaminated.

Frey said at that time the recycling bins were to be used by township residents only after people have been coming down from Towamensing, Mahoning and Penn Forest townships to drop their recyclables off.

He said residents were to drop their nonrecyclables in a garbage dumpster behind the township garage, and that when they emptied the bags, tear open the bag and reuse it again to haul their recyclables the next time.

Supervisors said at that time they would crack down on those who improperly discard their recyclables because they didn’t want to lose their recycling.