Durham residents that use the City's recycling drop-off centers should that note that effective Friday, July 12, 2009, all but one of the centers will be closed.

According to Donald Long, director of the City's Department of Solid Waste Management, multiple reasons are behind the closure of all but one of the recycling drop-off centers.

"With the introduction of our new curbside recycling collection service beginning the week of July 13, we anticipate that the use of these centers will decrease significantly," Long said. "In addition, since these centers are not staffed, only a minimal amount of usable recyclables are recovered from these locations, mainly due to contamination of what's left there. Add to this issue the rampant illegal dumping that occurs in addition to considerable staff time used in keeping the sites clean. When we take all of these factors into consideration, we believe it is just not a good use of our taxpayer dollars to keep these centers open, especially since the new 95-gallon recycling roll-out carts should eliminate the need for these centers almost completely."

The location of the closing drop-off centers are as follows:

· Festival Shopping Center, located at 3457 Hillsborough Road

· Heritage Square Shopping Center, located at 401 East Lakewood Avenue

· Northgate Mall, located at 1058 West Club Boulevard (behind Office Max)

· The Village Shopping Center, located at 1100 North Miami Boulevard

· Southern Boundaries Park, located 3400 Third Fork Road

· TFC Recycling, located at 1017 South Hoover Road

According to Long, the only drop-off center that will remain open after July 10 is the City's Waste Disposal and Recycling Center (Transfer Station), located at 2115 East Club Boulevard, Durham. The City's Waste Disposal and Recycling Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. until 12 p.m. "This is the only City recycling drop-off center that is staffed, and as a result, the recyclable contamination and illegal dumping that has occurred at our other sites has not been a problem here," Long said. "If our customers need to recycle something that doesn't fit into their new curbside roll-out carts, they can still use this facility to drop off their items."

The Durham County Convenience Centers continue to be operational and city residents can bring recycling only to the County centers at no charge. These centers are located at:

· Highway 55 and T.W. Alexander Drive (Parkwood), (919) 560-0460

· Quail Roost Road and Ball Road (Bahama), (919) 477-8552

· Redwood Road and Electra Drive (Redwood), (919) 682-8200

· Highway 501 North and Bill Poole Road (Rougemont), (919) 477-4325

To learn more about these changes taking place the week of July 13th, including the new curbside recycling collection service as well as the changes to bulky item pick-up, yard waste pick-up, and the new collection day for existing Friday customers, visit the City's Web site at www.durhamnc.gov/departments/solid/recycle_curb_collection.cfm or contact Durham One Call at (919) 560-1200.

About the Department of Solid Waste Management

The City's Department of Solid Waste Management promotes and supports a high quality of life for the citizens of Durham by providing comprehensive, responsive, environmentally-safe, efficient, and cost-effective solid waste collection, recycling, and disposal programs. Department services include roll-out cart collection for garbage, yard waste, and recycling; cart delivery and repair service, bulky item pick-up; street cleaning; and disposal services.