The organization that operates recycling programs in Altoona, Hollidaysburg and Logan Township has a new education and enforcement coordinator.

She is AJ Kurtz, 32, who grew up on Dutch Hill in a family that practiced recycling faithfully.

Every Saturday, Kurtz’s father, Tom, would sort recyclables the family produced over the preceding week and they’d take those items to Burgmeier’s with her late grandfather, John Kurtz, “who had the truck,” Kurtz said in a phone interview, a week after being hired by the board of the Intermunicipal Relations Committee.

Periodically, her father would also collect old paint cans and other items from their garage for the IRC’s household hazardous waste collection events, Kurtz said.

“I cherish those memories,” she said.

Kurtz is raising her son — who is 8¾ (don’t call him 8) — to be a recycler, she said.

“We’re a multi-generation recycling family,” she said.

Kurtz is starting a job that hasn’t proven easy, as her predecessor was let go several months ago following one hauler’s brief suspension of his collection of recyclables to protest what he alleged were overbearing enforcement practices by the coordinator at the time.

The hauler also cited frequent encounters with recycling bins contaminated with non-recyclable materials, sometimes including broken glass.

The board declined to explain the termination of Kurtz’s predecessor, saying it was a personnel issue, and the predecessor herself declined to talk about it.

Despite that recent history, Kurtz is eager to plunge into her work, she said.

“I want to be fair and open-minded and also follow the ordinances,” which require residents in the three municipalities to set out recyclables curbside on collection days and also require haulers to properly dispose of those recyclables that are properly prepared.

Kurtz will be learning how the IRC handles enforcement and plans to follow the “operational procedures” for enforcement, she said.

Those procedures are listed in an “internal document” that the organization declined to share with the Mirror.

Kurtz is looking forward to informing residents how to prepare recycling bins when such instruction is necessary and is also looking forward to talking with haulers about their responsibilities and concerns — including concerns about contaminated recycling bins, she said.

“I’m the one that gets to make that kind of connection and help folks learn,” she said.

Sometimes people are confused about what is required, she said.

The organization has handouts that help explain those requirements, she said.

Both residents and haulers generally want to do the right thing, according to Kurtz.

She also is looking forward to collaboration with libraries, other community organizations and small businesses about recycling issues and events, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.