Frankfort officials have decided not to pursue a contract with a new recycling plant after their previous partner’s facility burned down earlier this week. Trash crews will still resume curbside pickup of recyclable materials next week.
Werner and Son Recycling had processed most of the more than one million pounds of recycling the city collects each year. Frankfort Street Superintendent Jason Forsythe says he wants to continue that partnership once the plant is back up and running instead of creating a new contract with another company.
“I think that would be doing a disservice to Werner and Son,” Forsythe says. “We’ve been doing business with them a long time.”
The department will resume curbside collection on a smaller scale, collecting materials from one quarter of the city each Wednesday until Werner and Son can resume service. That means each home will get its recyclables picked up about once a month, instead of every week.
“What this enables us to do is to keep the recycle program going,” Forsythe says. “We obviously expect at times there’s going to be people who don’t want to hold onto it for a certain period of time.”
All material will be sorted by hand at the street department’s facilities. Forsythe says Werner and Son offered three employees to assist the city. The West Lafayette Street Department also reached out to offer help.
Recycling will be collected from one quadrant of the city each week:
- Aug. 7: The southeast quarter
- Aug. 14: The northwest quarter
- Aug. 21: The northeast quarter
- Aug. 28: The southwest quarter
Forsythe says Werner and Son is expecting to have some of its services back online within 30 days. If there is a delay, the street department will repeat the quadrant collection cycle.
