Rehoboth’s Boardwalk recycling program still struggling
Following a presentation by staff showing less than 1% of the recycling collected on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk this past summer was actually recycled, city commissioners are questioning if the program should continue.
“I wonder if we should look at this a bit more carefully. It seems to be a bit of a waste of resources,” said Commissioner Don Preston. “I’m not suggesting that recycling isn’t important, but this sounds like it’s wholly ineffective.”
After years of discussion, the city placed 65 recycling bins on the Boardwalk in 2022. Contamination rates for that summer and in 2023 were equally high.
Public Works Director Henry Matlosz presented commissioners with the information during an end-of-summer report Oct. 7. He said there were a total of 30 contamination-free recycling bags of the 800 bags collected on the Boardwalk this summer.
Matlosz said people have good intentions, but they don’t realize that if it says bottles and cans only, other things will contaminate an entire bag.
In advance of next season, Matlosz said he plans to get in touch with Delaware Solid Waste Authority for ideas on how to improve the process and provide more training for staff.
Preston said training staff is a good idea, but it seems like the public needs to be trained too, and he doesn’t know how the city can go about doing that.
Looking forward, Mayor Stan Mills said commissioners will continue to discuss the program once staff has had time to look into possible changes and make another report.
There was a bright side to the Boardwalk trash and recycling situation – the installation of two containers specifically for pizza boxes.
Commissioner Patrick Gossett said this has been an effective program.
In other areas of public works, Matlosz said the amount of wastewater and water treated was similar to the past two years.
However, in response to a record level of water usage and to help spread out the demand, city officials encouraged customers to use their irrigation systems on alternating days immediately following Fourth of July weekend. The city treated more than 3.5 million gallons of water per day July 5 and July 6. The next day, July 7, it was 3.4 million gallons.
Matlosz said the department is continuing to evaluate the issue and will likely recommend the alternating-day program again next year. It’s something he would like to implement, especially on Fourth of July weekend, he said.
Matlosz said the new pump station on State Road is substantially complete. There were about $60,000 in change orders, which pushed the total cost to a little less than $2.79 million.
In early August, the city installed CocoPath mats on the two Rehoboth Avenue dune crossings. Matlosz said the city will leave them out over the winter to see how they handle the weather and that other cities are interested in how things turn out.
Commissioner Craig Thier said someone told him the large-wheeled handicap chairs used to cross the dunes don’t seem to move as well on the CocoPath mats. Those chairs apparently slide better on the typical blue mats because they’re plastic, he said.
