Waste Management picks up town's curbside Recycling

Warwick n Curbside recycling is back on track. After firing its contracted recycler two weeks ago, the town quickly found a new/old face-Waste Management-to provide the service. Supervisor Michael Sweeton said Waste Management came in as the low bidder in this emergency bid, which attracted seven total bidders, at a cost of $4.60 per house, per month. This contract will take the town through this calendar year. Next month, Sweeton said, the town will go out to bid again for a multi-year contract. Waste Management had been the town's recycle hauler for several years before its contract ran out last December. The company bid for the town's recycling contract but was nearly twice as high as Waste-No-More, the Nanuet-based start-up company that eventually won the contract. Because Waste-No-More was a new company, the town built into the contract a 30-day release clause, just in case the service was not up to par. Homeowners had complained that the service has been spotty at best since the town awarded the contract and began using Waste-No-More in January. Earlier this month, according to Sweeton, Waste-No-More owner Carl Polichetti called him and said he could not collect the recycling any longer due to equipment problems. Although The Warwick Advertiser was not able to contact Polichetti, The Times Herald-Record reported Polichetti claims he has been sabotaged from the beginning. Tires have been slashed on several occasions, oil was applied to a garbage truck's brakes, and the fuel line of another truck was slashed. Polichetti told The Record that competitors tried to intimidate him into giving up the town contract. He did not name anyone in particular. The town immediately began looking for both an emergency replacement and a new, permanent recycling hauler. The contract went out to bid last year as the old contract with Waste Management was coming to an end. The town rebid the contract after receiving just one bid from Waste Management. The second time around, the town received three bids with Waste-No-More nearly half the price of the other two. Recycling has not run smoothly before this year either. Sweeton has said there were complaints about the service when Waste Management did the job. Since taking over last week, there have been some missed streets but, according to the supervisor, it is the volume of recycling needing to be picked up that has caused the delays, he stated. Sweeton had said the town would have a recycler by Aug. 16 but was able to get the program back a week earlier. "Recycling resumed this week for village residents," said Sweeton at Monday's village board meeting. "All village residents should put their recycling materials out on the same day as usual." Sweeton thanked the board and the residents for their patience. "I thank the board and the residents throughout the town for their patience," Sweeton said. "The recycling started again last week and everything is running smoothly."