FALMOUTH — After reducing recycling availability for businesses a year ago, the town plans to offer them curbside pickup starting this fall.

The new program allows businesses to purchase large trash bins from Pine Tree Waste at a cost of $13 a month, instead of paying the $5 annual fee at the transfer station.

According to Town Manager Nathan Poore, the town saw a slight decrease in recycling after moving its “silver bullet” recycling containers to the transfer station in October 2011.

“(When we moved the silver bullets) we basically decreased the level of service for businesses,” Poore said. “We did open the transfer station to non-residents last winter, but that’s still limited hours compared to the 24/7 availability with the silver bullets, and we did see a slight drop in recycling. We attributed some of that to the businesses not having access to recycling without getting into Dumpsters.”

The town worked with Pine Tree Waste to coordinate pick-up times for the new bins. Pick-ups have been scheduled so that business waste is collected the same day as the residential curbside pickup in their area.

As an incentive to get started in the program, the town plans to pay the first three months of services – a total of around $2,000 – for the first 50 businesses that sign up.

Poore said he hopes at least 50 businesses will take advantage of the service.

More information on the program was scheduled to be mailed to businesses this week.

Amber Cronin can be reached at acronin@theforecaster.net or 781-3661 ext. 125. Follow her on Twitter @croninamber.


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