City Hall Kicks off Chester Recycling Campaign

Tomorrow, a Zero Waste initiative beginning with Chester City Hall and extending throughout additional municipal buildings to divert 100 percent of the waste from incineration through recycling will be announced.  The City of Chester will be setting an example for Chester citizens as well as other Delaware County municipalities to follow.

“Increasing the amount of people who are participating in recycling is a win-win for everybody”, West said. “Increased recycling will promote cleanliness, reduce the volume of trash and support once a week trash collection. In the weeks to come we will work with our churches and community block associations to increase participation in recycling targeting a 20 percent diversion rate by August 2014.” 

The recycling campaign will begin at City Hall, and continue in the following weeks to the Police and Fire Department, the Boys and Girls Clubs, followed by the Library. These buildings will become Delaware County’s first municipal Zero Waste facilities. Suburban Waste Services, the company that handles the city’s trash and recycling collection services, will implement the program. Currently the city of Chester produces 1100 tons of waste each month, but only recycles 25 tons or 2.5 percent. “At 20 percent the City of Chester would recover 220 tons per month. “At the cost of $33 for each ton of waste sent to the incinerator, Chester will save over $90,000 per year by increasing its divergent rate to 20 percent. Zero Waste will be achieved through single stream recycling of the office and dry waste, composting of the washroom towel waste, coffee stations and cafeteria food and soiled paper wastes” explained Suburban CEO David Dilenno.

The City of Chester has submitted grant proposals to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to receive recycling collection containers for distribution free-of-charge to City residents.  Additional information on the Campaign and flyer on what to recycle can be found at http://www.chestercity.com/index.php/city-departments/streets-highway