NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio – A recycler of “soft goods” – including clothes, jewelry, blankets, tools and silverware – has stopped doing business in North Royalton but is continuing to serve Strongsville residents.
Great Lakes Recycling entered into contracts in 2018 to pick up soft recyclables curbside in both North Royalton and Strongsville. However, when COVID-19 hit, the company suspended soft-recyclable operations everywhere, according to North Royalton Mayor Larry Antoskiewicz and Strongsville Law Director Neal Jamison.
Antoskiewicz said Great Lakes, doing business here as Simple Recycling, recently resumed soft-recyclable service but said it would no longer schedule weekly trash-day pickups as it did before. Instead, residents would have to call whenever they wanted a pickup of soft recyclables.
“We asked them to send an amended agreement, but they never got back to us,” Antoskiewicz said.
So, on Sept. 7, North Royalton City Council formally terminated the city’s contract with Great Lakes. The ordinance said that Great Lakes “has failed to meet its obligations under the existing agreement.”
A representative from Padnos, Great Lakes’ parent company in Holland, Michigan, didn’t return calls for comment.
Meanwhile, on Sept. 17, Strongsville City Council approved an amendment to the city’s original contract with Great Lakes, which Jamison said resumed soft recyclable service in September.
Under the amended agreement, Great Lakes will collect soft recyclables only when residents call or make a request on the company’s website, instead of driving through town picking up soft recyclables curbside every week on trash day. Great Lakes will decide when it will schedule a special pickup.
Jamison said Great Lakes is trying to operate more efficiently due to a lack of manpower. The company is asking residents to place soft recyclables outside their front doors and label the bags “Simple Recycling.”
Also, Great Lakes is requiring residents to provide their own containers – including boxes and plastic or paper bags – for recyclables. Previously, the company provided orange bags in which to place recyclables, although Jamison said Great Lakes will still distribute orange bags if residents ask for them.
Also under the amended contract, Great Lakes will pay the city 5 cents for every pickup of soft recyclables. The previous fee structure – 1 cent for every pound – was difficult if not impossible to measure and track, Jamison said.
Finally, Strongsville has agreed to notify residents six times a year that Great Lakes’ soft recyclable service is available. Notification channels can include social media, email, newsletters and publications, according to the amended contract.
Under the now-cancelled contract with North Royalton, Great Lakes said it would sell top-quality soft recyclables collected from residents to local thrift stores. The firm exports mid-quality items to international markets and recycles raw materials from items deemed unusable.
North Royalton city officials, who were charging Great Lakes 1 cent for every pound of soft recyclables gathered, had estimated that the agreement would generate $5,000 a year for the city, plus money saved in lower landfill fees, for a total of about $15,000.
In addition to Strongsville and North Royalton, Great Lakes had soft-recyclable agreements with several other Cuyahoga County communities, including Bay Village, Berea, Brooklyn, Chagrin Falls, Mayfield, North Olmsted, Parma Heights, Rocky River and Solon.
Rumpke Waste & Recycling, under a separate contract with North Royalton, will continue picking up garbage and recyclables like aluminum and steel cans, cartons, glass bottles and jars, cardboard and plastic containers for residents curbside every week.
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November 03, 2021 at 12:52AM
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Pickup of “soft recyclables” stops in North Royalton, continues in Strongsville - cleveland.com
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