It's been two years this week since Millcreek supervisors voted to award the township's refuse and recycling contract to Advanced Disposal. It is a five year deal.
    

Now, the company is asking the supervisors to amend the contract.

 

Ed Yahner, General Manager of Advanced Disposal, personally addressed the supervisors to ask for the hike.   It would not be a huge increase.

 

"Actually, we're asking for a unit rate increase of 24 cents monthly. This would be for the curbside residential customers.  It would not affect the Pay As You Throw 'per bag' customers,” he said.
   

Millcreek customers currently pay $59.76 per quarter for the collection of their garbage and recyclables.    The hike would mean an extra 72 cents every three months.
  

Yahner says Advanced Disposal is being charged more by the company that accepts and sorts its recyclables.  Advanced Disposal wants to pass some of those costs onto the customer.  The higher costs are blamed on single stream recycling, where glass, plastics, and paper are all placed in one container.

 

"We mix everything together. When we do that there's contamination, and what that basically means is glass can break, colors can mix.  It makes it more difficult to recycle when that happens,” said Yahner.
     

Yahner says some refuse contractors are no longer accepting glass.  Advanced Disposal, he said, would keep collecting glass and all other materials on its current menu in Millcreek.
    

Millcreek Supervisor John Groh is worried that if he and his colleagues approve a hike, Advanced Disposal may still, someday, stop accepting glass.

 

"That could happen and then we've got a price increase and yet no service coming out of that there.  So something has to give somewhere,” he said.

 

The supervisors will discuss the rate hike request among themselves and determine if they agree on a 24 cent a month hike, something less, or nothing at all. That decision could be made at their next meeting on March 26.