Franklin Township’s newly opened recycling center is off to a promising start.

Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr. said at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting that there have been quite a few people who have volunteered their time.

“I’d like to thank everybody that’s been helping out,” Kemmerer Jr. “We’ve had a lot of people who volunteer their time.”

Kemmerer added, “We haven’t actually spent any money for overseeing the recycling.

“Those are the ways that we’re going to be able to keep the costs down, because there’s no money in recycling,” he said. “It’s just something that we’re pulling the tonnage from the garbage. I think that the more volunteers we get the better.”

Board Chairman Nick Storm said that since the recycling center opened earlier this month, they counted 113 vehicles that came in and dropped materials off, and added that 358 recycling passes have been given out.

“That’s a pretty good start to it, anyway,” Storm said.

The recycling pass shows that they are residents of Franklin Township, and must be shown at the gate before dropping off recycling items.

In a related matter, supervisors unanimously accepted the donation of signs from an anonymous donor for the recycling center.

“The first few weeks we had pieces of cardboard, and then we got a donation for some nice signage to hang on the dumpsters that specifies what goes in the dumpsters so we don’t have contamination,” Storm said.

Last month, the township held an open house at the pavilions at Phifer’s Ice Dam to learn about the new recycling center. Residents were also able to pick up recycling bins.

The new recycling center is set up in the gated section behind the township garage and police department on Fairyland Road.

The center began operations July 2. It is open from 3-7 p.m. Thursdays and 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays, to Franklin Township residents only.

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.