Oyster Bay residents to pay more for less recycling next year

 Town of Oyster Bay residents will recycle less and pay more next year under an agreement adopted by the town board on Tuesday.

The town board agreed to pay $69.75 per ton of recyclables to the Sanitary District No. 1 of the Town of Hempstead. Omni Recycling of Westbury, Inc. will do the work under contract with the sanitary district, town officials said.

The town will continue to collect recycling as single stream — meaning that paper and cardboard won’t need to be separated from plastics and metal— but the town will no longer recycle glass or certain plastics.

“While surrounding municipalities are transitioning from single stream to dual stream recycling … We sought an option with much less impact to our residents,” Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said before the vote. “This [Inter-Municipal Agreement] will allow the town to continue picking up recyclables weekly and not change the schedule for our residents.”

 The two-year agreement, which had not been announced before the meeting, will cost the town an estimated $1.2 million annually, based on a projection of 18,300 tons of recyclable materials.

The town switched to single-stream recycling in 2017, shortly after China announced it would reduce the materials it accepted for recycling. To make way for single-stream, the town canceled two recycling contracts, one with Omni Recycling of Westbury under which the town paid it $35.75 per ton to pick up and recycle glass, plastic and metal and another with Giove Co Inc , which paid the town a minimum of $45 per ton for paper and cardboard.

The town entered into a contract with Winters Bros. Hauling of Long Island under which the company paid the town $25.08 per ton. China’s restrictions made the market for recyclables less profitable and Winter Bros. sought to renegotiate the contract to have the town pay them $65 per ton. The town opted not to seek to force the company to honor four one-year contract extensions and the company agreed to honor its contract through the end of 2018.

Last month the town solicited bids for new recycling contracts but details on those bids were not made available Tuesday.

“Those bids weren't as acceptable as this at this time to the residents,” town public works commissioner Richard Lenz told the board.

Saladino said the town entering into an intermunicipal agreement with Omni rather than contracting with them directly was “the proper procedure.”

“The town's followed all aspects of the law and procedures with the bidding process,” Saladino said.