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By Clark Curtis, For the Washington Daily News

The City of Washington’s recycling program is expected to resume operations on Tuesday, September 5, after having been temporarily suspended since July 21st. “The sudden stoppage of operations came about due to a change in ownership at our current recycling location,” said Washington City Manager, Jonathan Russell. “During the transitional phase of ownership change, the facility temporarily ceased all operations. This not only impacted the City of Washington and Beaufort County, but six other area counties, including Pitt.”

The new owners, Recycling & Disposal Solutions (RDS), also operates the recycling center in Virginia Beach. Russell said it is very common for companies such as RDS to purchase other facilities around the country. “It is all about economy of scale on the commodities market,” added Russell.

Russell said should a situation like this arise again in the future the city will keep its options open. “We certainly would look at companies such as Green for Life and Republic for recycling and trash services,” said Russell. “Or any other national chains for that matter. In this instance we elected to remain with the new ownership group, in large part because of the recycling centers’ proximity to Washington, which meant the overall cost of the service was going to be less.

Russell added the process will remain as it was before. Recyclables and trash will be picked up separately. Recycling will be taken to the recycling center in Pitt County and the solid waste will be taken to a separate site in Beaufort County.