Officials Release Garbage and Recycling Update

The following messages comes courtesy of the Springfield Government.

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The current contracts for garbage and recycling collection services ended Dec. 31, 2012.  The township advertised a Request for Proposals (RFP) for new collections services effective January 2013. The RFPs were advertised in Oct. 2012 and were received back to the township on Dec. 4.  Five eligible bids were received for garbage and recycling collection services. 

On Dec. 18, 2012 the Township Committee reviewed several solid waste and recycling options for 2013.  After careful review, the Township Committee agreed to the following:

*Garbage collection will be once per week. If your garbage was picked up Monday and Thursday, your garbage collection day will be Thursday. If your garbage collection day was Tuesday and Friday, your garbage collection day will be Friday.  This will start Thursday, January 31 and Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, respectively. 

*Bulk garbage pick-up will remain at four times per year:   March 20- 21, June 12-13, September 18-19 and December 11-12. Your bulk day will fall on the respective day in the previous bullet.

*Collection of garbage and recyclables in public parks and public containers in retail areas will now be collected by Regional Industries, LLC, a private hauler, thereby freeing up DPW workers to focus on their core operations.

*Recycling will be made easier by changing to “single-stream” recycling collection, allowing for recyclable bottles, cans, plastic containers and recyclable mixed paper to be co-mingled together into a single waste stream.

*Recycling will be increased from every other week to once a week, on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013.. 

* The Springfield Environmental Commission will be helping the Township with education and outreach of the services and dates listed above.

Updated information and holiday pick is on the Township home page: http://www.springfield-nj.us/index.php?page=home  and the DPW’s home page: http://www.springfield-nj.us/departments/department-of-public-works.html. 

Frequent updates will be available on Springfield Patch.