The American Fork City Council looked at ways to get more residents involved in recycling, but stopped short of making the program mandatory at a March 20 work session. The city has provided optional recycling services for more than a year, but had been considering making it city-wide, in part because the participation rate has been lower than hoped.

Reece DeMille, from Allied Waste, the company which provides the recycling pickup in the community, told the council that 14 percent of the homes in the city were participating in recyling. He said the number was increasing.

"Last July it was 11 percent," he said. Residents pay $4.50 a month for the service, which is provided every other week.

"If it were mandatory, we would be able to go down a little bit," DeMille said. He said the number was not exact, but would probably drop by 25 cents a month per home.

"We would have to buy an extra truck and have an extra man to take on the whole city," he said. In addition, there would also be the need for additional containers.

He said the recycling in that case would take more than the one day it does now.

"We would probably split it up into sections and do one-tenth of the city at a time," he said. That would still make the service on a bi-weekly basis, but a truck would be in a section of American Fork every day.

Councilwoman Sherry Kramer said she has had residents tell her they would be interested in recycling, but had not taken the time to call and sign up for it. She suggested the city provide a free month of service for each home, then begin charging for recycling for those who do not cancel.

"I feel like if we can get the cans in people's homes they would use them," she said.

Saying it would be a logistical issue to purchase those new cans for the trial basis, DeMille suggested the possibility of offering the trial to only a portion of the community at a time.

DeMille said people support recycling in concept.

"People love the environment, but nobody wants to pay for recycling," he said. DeMille said there was a perception that those who haul the recycling matter away make money in the process. He clarified the situation.

"Recycling is not a money maker for a hauler," he said. "It costs a lot to process and ship it."

The city is not making money on the project, either. Charging the residents $4.50 a month for the service and paying Allied $4.57, which includes a fuel surcharge, the city is actually losing money for each home participating in recycling. There is an off-setting benefit, however, in that the items in the recycling program do not end up in the landfill, which reduces the charge the city has to pay for the tonnage it sends there.

Councilman Dale Gunther said he was against making the program mandatory, but felt there could be a good way to provide an incentive to the residents to participate. He suggested a rate structure to make the costs the same for garbage pickup alone and a combination garbage and recycling. The cost for those who currently use two garbage cans and change to a garbage can and recycle bin would actually go down, he said.