Shawnee County adds new recycling fee

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Shawnee County implemented a $3.50 subscription fee for recycling at the beginning of the new year.

Existing customers will be automatically added to the subscription, but you can opt-out on the county's website. Leaders believe this is necessary because of a new contract with Waste Management that raised costs for the county exponentially.

“The new contract was unsustainable financially for the department so we had to do something drastic to offset the cost of this new contract,” said Bill Sutton, Director of Shawnee County Solid Waste.

Shawnee County says it will also replace some of the community recycling bins with new ones. Those will only accept cardboard material.