Hampton is in the middle of a multi-year contract (new rates each year). Any changes to this contract, including recycling, are subject to change only through mutual consent of both parties, which has not yet occurred. The North Hills Council of Governments, which is where Hampton bids these services through with many of our neighboring communities, hosted a meeting recently with all of the haulers in the North Hills area to update us on what is going on in the recycling industry. Basically, we are being told that there is no market for many of the materials previously recycled. China is no longer purchasing a lot of these materials so they have no home. Part of the problem is that materials that are co-minged cause contamination within the stream of recycling and a significant reduction in acceptable contamination levels took place in March of 2018. We are working to see if there are possibilities outside of this contract. Several organizations are exploring local opportunities that do exist to replace these services. We will keep you updated as information becomes available and will be working with our current hauler, Waste Management, on any potential change to the contract and what that may mean to our residents. We will notify you in advance when the new regulations take place in Hampton. In the meantime, you have a choice to continue placing glass and all plastics #1-7 in your recycling container, or begin to eliminate the glass and plastics #3-7 from your recyclables.
One thing we want to stress is the disposal of plastic bags. The best and most efficient way to have these recycled is at drop-offs such as Giant Eagle and other stores. This ensures that they are recycled and you can drop off bags from any store at any of those locations. The bag does not have to be from that store.