Beginning next week there will be a significant reduction in the number of bins town residents will be able to use for recycling.

As of Feb. 1, three of the six containers in the Library/Museum parking lot will be removed due to a need to cut costs.

The Town of Fountain Hills had experienced an overwhelming response to the free recycling services, so much so there were issues with too much material collecting at the bins and overflowing into the parking lot.

The town needed to take steps because Waste Management would not pick up the bins unless all material was inside the containers.

“In order to keep the program going we need to find a way to make reductions in cost,” said Raymond Rees, environmental planner with the Town of Fountain Hills.

Besides the reduction in collection bins the town is asking residents with cardboard to be recycled to take it to another location.

Beginning Feb. 1, residents are being asked to take all of their cardboard boxes for recycling to Bashas’ grocery store in Fountain Hills from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., weekdays only, at the store’s loading dock at the rear of the building.

“Cardboard is by far the material that takes up the most room in our containers, so by eliminating the cardboard from the materials accepted, we can reduce the number of containers needed for the free service.”

Rees is asking residents to please understand that Bashas’ is acting as a good community neighbor.

“Only leave cardboard when someone is there to accept it,” Rees said. “We can’t leave it piled by the building.”

The Town Council budgeted $11,000 for this program in fiscal year 2009-10.

While the fiscal year is only half over, the program has already spent its dollars. This was due to the town increasing the frequency of pickups and number of bins as a result of overflowing materials and resident demand. 

Now, the town is working within the budget to find an additional $3,500 necessary to operate the three remaining bins through June.

Some residents have asked why the town has to pay to have the recycling material hauled away when there are non-profit groups that make money collecting recyclables.

According to Town Manager Rick Davis the difference is in the sorting. The containers the town has at the library parking lot are “catch all.” The company needs to sort if after it is collected.

The non-profit groups collect a single item such as newspaper or aluminum cans that do not need sorting.

There have also been questions about whether the town is cutting into the collections of the non-profit groups with its recycling center.

Davis said that is not the intention and residents are encouraged to take their newspaper or aluminum cans to the non-profit sites, usually at schools or churches.

That is particularly true since the town is reducing the capacity by half.

In addition to the town continuing to operate three bins that accept all recyclables without sorting, except cardboard, the town sponsors numerous paper shredding and recycling events and electronic recycling events throughout the year free of charge to its residents.

The town is also considering moving to a unified trash hauler for the community, which would automatically include curbside recycling.