Smithtown recycling effort joins with Brookhaven, Huntington for single-stream pickup

Smithtown officials plan to sign agreements with Brookhaven and Huntington towns for single-stream recycling, allowing residents to put all items in one container for pickup beginning in January.

The Smithtown town board voted for Supervisor Patrick Vecchio to ink deals with both municipalities, pending approval from Smithtown's civil service union with members who formerly sorted recyclables.

Brookhaven agreed to pay Smithtown $15 per ton of recyclables, Vecchio said. Smithtown's plans with Huntington were stalled Thursday when Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone pulled a resolution to approve the deal because Smithtown hadn't resolved labor union issues, Huntington spokesman A.J. Carter said.

Petrone said Huntington may call a special town board meeting in the future to sign the agreement with Smithtown if union issues are resolved, Carter added.

If the proposal is approved, Huntington will bring its recyclables to Smithtown's facility on Old Northport Road, Vecchio said. Smithtown workers will then transport both Smithtown and Huntington's recyclables to a Brookhaven Town-owned facility housing a multimillion-dollar system operated by Green Stream Recycling.

Huntington also will pay about 60 percent of Smithtown's labor and equipment costs, he added. Huntington will receive a portion of the fee that Smithtown receives from Brookhaven based on weight of recyclables contributed.

"There's been a long history of partnering with Huntington" on solid-waste endeavors, Vecchio said, citing a garbage incinerator shared by both towns. "It's obviously a win for Smithtown because we're not bearing the total cost."

The Smithtown town board approved the partnerships in a unanimous 5-0 vote on Tuesday, but Vecchio said the agreement with Brookhaven is independent of the Huntington deal.

Brookhaven Supervisor Edward P. Romaine heralded the deal as an example that "local governments are solving regional problems through mutual collaboration . . . If we can't manage our garbage, we're not going to succeed as a region."

Vecchio and Kelly Brown, president of Smithtown's Civil Service Employees Association -- which has about 400 members -- said they planned to sign an agreement this week.

"The union wanted to make sure that there were no lost wages and there was job protection," Brown said.

Smithtown expects to produce 10,000 tons of recyclables annually and reduce the town's recycling costs by $500,000, to $750,000 a year.