Franklin Township residents visited the pavilions at Phifer’s Ice Dam for an open house, to learn about the new Recycling Center that will soon be operating in the township.

The open house included a food truck “Taste of Napoli,” sponsored by Townplace Suites Marriott, Hampton Inn. Elizabeth Grodis, the Franklin Township assistant secretary, had several of her pet goats on hand for children to pet, and there were giveaways of T-shirts, toy trucks and games.

Residents were also able to pick up recycling bins.

The new recycling center will be set up in the gated section behind the township garage and police department on Fairyland Road. The center will be open to Franklin Township residents only, and will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. The center will begin operations on July 2.

“Everyone can get a recycling pass that they can keep in their car, that will show that they are a resident of Franklin Township,” Jill Renfrew, township volunteer, said. The pass must be shown at the gate before dropping off recycling items.

“We’re trying very hard to make sure we’re doing as much as we can at the moment, and we’re hoping to increase the number of items we can recycle,” Renfew said.

No plastic items are being accepted as of yet, hopefully in the future.

Items that can be recycled include:

• Cardboard such as shipping boxes, egg cartons (not the Styrofoam ones), paper towel and toilet paper rolls. Flatten the boxes, no waxy coatings or greasy food boxes (no pizza boxes).

• Office paper, newspaper, paper bags, magazines, junk mail and paper cups, clean and dry. Staples and envelope windows are OK. Paperback books are OK, not hardbound books.

“Don’t tie newspaper in bundles,” Grodis said. “We would just have to untie them.”

• Glass bottles and jars, beer bottles, other beverage bottles, pickle jars. Stickers or labels do not need to be removed, but remove all lids. Metal lids can be recycled, but separate from the glass.

• Mixed metals: metal lids from jars, copper pipes, metal shelving, pots and pans, small metal tools, bicycle parts, metal bed frames, grills, washers and dryers, wire and fencing, scrap metal pieces.

• Electronic items are not to be dropped off at this center, but Franklin Township holds electronic recycling events during the year for those items.

• Tires can be recycled, but are handled differently, and there is a cost to recycle tires.

“You can purchase a voucher with how many tires you want to turn in; you will be given the voucher, and turn that in when you go to drop off the tires,” said Township Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr.

The cost is $5 per tire for regular-sized tires. Larger tires will cost more.

The tire vouchers and the recycling passes can be acquired at the township office.

Franklin Township originally shut down its recycling center in April 2020. The drop-off facility was discontinued because users were contaminating the bins with plastic bags and general household garbage.