Plan ahead for the holiday week trash
IN THE CITY
by Dana Fowler
Now that Christmas is over, you may have a couple of questions about what to do with the tree that you will be taking down in a few days. There are several drop-off sites in Presque Isle as well as drop-off locations in Mapleton, Washburn and Perham.
Please refer to the advertisement in this newspaper or the city’s website for specific locations on where you can dispose of your Christmas tree at not cost. We would appreciate you not place the tree in a plastic bag and please remove all decorations from the tree.
If you still have some wrapping paper left over from the Christmas rush, please dispose of it as trash in the orange Pay As You Throw (PAYT) bag. Wrapping paper is not recyclable and must not be placed in a blue bag for recycling.
For those Presque Isle residents that have PAYT collection on Tuesdays, there will be a special PAYT collection on Saturday, Dec. 29. There was no collection on Christmas Day nor will there be a collection on New Year’s Day due to the holidays, so be sure to take advantage of the Dec. 29 PAYT pickup and have your bags out by 7 a.m.
We also would like to advise you of a change in the packaging of the PAYT bags. The price of both small and large PAYT bags will remain the same for 2013 as it was for 2012. However, when current stocks of the “5+5 combo packs” run out, the new packages of PAYT bags will not have the blue recycling bags included. Due to complaints from residents that they had too many blue bags, a decision was made to remove the blue bags from the PAYT combo packs.
Blue bags will not be sold separately so that you will not have an oversupply of blue bags. Please refer to the ad elsewhere in this newspaper or on the city’s website for those vendors that sell PAYT bags and blue bags. Residents can use blue bags for recycling from any one of several manufacturers as long as the bag is blue and is transparent. The blue indicates to the waste hauler that the contents are recyclable and the transparency permits the hauler to make sure that the contents are not contaminated with non-recyclable materials.
If you use the Presque Isle landfill, we would like to advise you that you can dispose of refuse without a permit. However, vehicles without a permit are required to pay the disposal fee at the time of disposal, which is $150 per ton or $3.35 per bag for refuse, whichever is less. Frequent users of the landfill may purchase user decals at $300 each and $175 for each additional vehicle. Users with decals may charge fees to their account and be invoiced at the end of the month.
Presque Isle businesses that have a waste hauler collect their refuse will not see the rebate on their invoices in 2013 that they had in 2012. Unfortunately, constraints in the municipal budget did not permit the subsidy that was provided in 2012. All commercial refuse generated by businesses and hauled by waste haulers will be assessed a landfill disposal fee of $112.50 per ton. For additional details on fees for specific types of waste or landfill rules, please refer to the city’s website.
If you have any questions about Pay As You Throw, recycling, or landfill rules, please contact the Solid Waste Division at 760-2712 or visit the www.presqueisle.govoffice2.com.
Dana Fowler, P.E., is public services director for the city of Presque Isle. He can be reached at 760-2707 or via e-mail at dfowler@presqueisleme.us.
