A local trash hauler who stopped collecting recyclables last month in violation of ordinances in Altoona, Logan Township and Hollidaysburg plans to resume those collections April 1.

Dutch’s Hauling owner Dutch Fornari stopped collecting recyclables in February due to high costs and especially in protest of “harassment” by the education and enforcement officer of the organization that operates local recycling programs in those municipalities, he has said.

But since Dutch’s suspended its collections, the Intermunicipal Relations Committee officer’s harassment of his company and of other haulers has stopped, and the IRC officer instead has been properly focused on customer compliance, Fornari said.

As long as that continues, and as long as things go well at an upcoming haulers meeting called by the IRC, he’ll follow through with the April 1 resumption of recycling service, Fornari said.

He has a lawyer, and the lawyer has told him that the officer has no business taking pictures showing how haulers handle their recyclables, Fornari said.

“I never wanted to quit (recycling) anyways,” Fornari said this week, after being asked about his resumption announcement on the company Facebook page.

Actually, the IRC’s enforcement policy hasn’t changed since Fornari’s announcement that he was suspending recyclable collection, according to IRC Executive Director Brock Bryan and the officer, Julie Dilling.

Fornari and the other haulers who have apparently told Fornari that Dilling hasn’t been checking on them must simply have failed to see her in action, according to both Bryan and Dilling.

The recycling ordinances of the three municipalities not only allow, but require the IRC to enforce recycling requirements for both residents and haulers, according to Dilling.

Those requirements are based on state law, and failure to enforce them can lead to loss of several types of grants that organizations like the IRC are otherwise entitled to receive from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Dilling said.

Dilling uses video and still pictures to document haulers’ violations of the recycling regulations — including the dumping of properly prepared recyclables in the trash, Dilling said.

“It’s very easy to tell,” she said.

That pictorial documentation allows her to succeed in a majority of such recyclable-trashing cases that she’s taken to magisterial district judges — cases in which the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, Dilling said.

She crafts her enforcement policies based on advice from the IRC solicitor, Dilling said.

She follows all the haulers, not just a select few — and not just Dutch’s, she said.

But certain haulers are frequent offenders, she said.

A large part of the problem in connection with the officer and her enforcement responsibility is the failure of customers to place only permitted recyclables in recycling bins, according to Fornari and hauler Rick Eberhart of Eberhart’s Hauling and Recycling, who complained about Dilling at a recent IRC meeting.

Only about 10% of his customers prepare their recycling bins correctly, Fornari has said.

That can lead to Dilling falsely presuming violations — as when a worker dumps the contents of a recycling bin that is badly fouled with improper items into a trash hopper or, conversely, when an unsuspecting worker dumps the contents of a bin that is fouled with hidden small pieces of trash into a recycling hopper, the haulers said.

People throw cat litter, cigarette butts and needles in with their recyclables, according to Eberhart.

He isn’t going to try picking out cigarette butts from the bottom of a recycling bin in the dark at 6 a.m., Eberhart said.

Some smash beer or soda bottles in their recycling bins, leading to workers cutting their hands, Fornari said.

He wouldn’t mind if the officer followed his trucks for a couple of blocks and took pictures if she saw anything amiss, Fornari has said.

But Dilling has followed his trucks for miles, interfering with his workers when they need to back up, he said.

While it’s unfortunate that Fornari chose to suspend his recyclable collections, it’s good to see him announce his intention to restart, Bryan said.

Compliance with the regulations is the IRC’s goal, he said.

Dutch’s customers will be happy about the restart, Bryan predicted.

Since Dutch’s stopped collecting recyclables, a higher-than-usual number of residents have been calling the IRC about haulers not recycling — and while some haven’t shared their haulers’ names, those that have, have been customers of Dutch’s, Bryan said.

Some customers have asked what the IRC planned to do about the situation, while some have asked where they themselves can take their recyclables, Bryan said.

In this area, options include Burgmeier’s recycling facility on Old Sixth Avenue Road, the IRC’s Recycling and Compost facility on Black Snake Road in Dysart and its Recycling and Compost Facility on Dunnings Highway/Old Route 220 in Duncansville.

Some people don’t like the idea of haulers trashing recyclables, negating the effort they’ve made keeping the items separate from their trash and placing them apart from the trash at the curb, Dilling said.

In addition to monitoring haulers for compliance, Dilling also monitors residents, she said.

If she sees bins improperly prepared, she may knock on the owner’s door, she said.

When someone answers, she’ll explain how the preparation should go, she said.

If no one answers, she’ll place an IRC newsletter with an outline of recycling rules on the door, she said.

Those rules are accessible on the IRC website and on the city website, she said.

The first such contact she has with a household is advisory, she said.

Subsequent contacts for improperly prepared recyclables can result in citations, she said.

Her first six months on the job a few years ago were fully focused on education — including with the haulers, she said.

She didn’t start writing citations until after that, she said.

Part of her job involves educational talks at various locations, including clubs and schools.

She is glad to receive invitations for such talks, she said.

On a broader scale than the issues with Fornari, there have been news reports in recent times about recyclables being collected and then dumped in landfills, Dilling said.

Despite those reports, Blair County residents can be assured that the recyclables collected here and taken to recycling processing centers end up actually being recycled, she said.