The invasion of Pottstown has begun.
Residents are being wrestled to the ground, overcome by the invaders’ weight. Homeowners are being held hostage on their properties, as the strange beings block gates and clog alleyways.
The creatures, propelled by wheels, race out of control on inclines. They line borough sidewalks in a show of solidarity, displaying their bold colors and proud insignias.
An army of aliens? Urban gangs -- gasp! -- come to wreak havoc on quiet suburban streets?
No, just a new line of recyling bins to hold down costs and reduce the universal waste stream.
The 65-gallon recycling bins -- 7,776 of them -- were purchased by the borough with a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the proceeds of a contract with Waste Management for Pottstown Landfill leachate treatment.
Council approved the enhanced recycling program to reduce trash disposal costs and give residents an opportunity to recycle more goods with ease.
The large toters on wheels allow borough residents to put all recycling -- cardboard, paper, newspapers, seven types of plastic, bottles and cans -- into one container. Technology utilized by J.P.Mascaro, the borough’s trash collection vendor, does the separating after the haul has been picked up and compacted.
The recycling initiative is one of the most forward-thinking and beneficial programs this borough council has approved.
If more of the 10,000 tons of trash the borough throws away each year is diverted to recycling or composting, the tipping fee Pottstown pays will go down. That in turn can lower the trash bills sent quarterly to borough property owners.
The bins are user-friendly with pictures of recyclable dos and don’t for the homeowner, and are large enough and mobile enough to accommodate household recycling without carrying overflowing bins to the curb.
What’s not to like?
Well, this is indeed Pottstown, where giving residents $100 bills might prompt some to complain there’s no place to spend them. The fuss over the blue bins last week came to council, where council President David Garner engaged in some trash talk of his own, “ ... if people can’t follow this, it’s a sad statement on the people we have in this community. I just shake my head.”
Councilman Steve Toroney noted that the recycling bins are a solution to rising trash pickup costs. The more people recycle, the less money will have to be spent on landfilling trash.
“With trash, you pay for the pick-up and the disposal,” he said. “This year, the price went up by $5 ... it will keep going up and the only way we can control our own destiny is to recycle more.”
The blue bins are the borough’s bid to make that happen.
The borough has indeed been invaded.
The culprit? Common sense.