City imposes monthly cardboard recycling fee It will cost $15 a month to empty one of these.

Businesses that dump their cardboard in the 30 green Dumpsters scattered around Sisters will now have to pay $15 per month for the privilege.

The Sisters City Council imposed a cardboard recycling container fee at their Thursday, June 13, meeting.

"It's been a free service and to offset some of the losses, we've set upon ... a cardboard recycling fee," said public works director Gary Frazee.

The city picks up cardboard from the Dumpsters and trucks it to Knott Landfill for sale.

Frazee said the fee would not make the recycling program break even at current cardboard prices.

He also noted that customers who don't want to pay the fee can still drop off cardboard for free at the Ash Street recycling center.

The city started recycling cardboard a decade ago. Businesses then dumped cardboard in plywood bins, which city employees picked up with a backhoe and dumped at the recycling center.

A couple of years ago, the Forest Service donated 30 green campground Dumpsters to the city and the city purchased an old garbage truck to collect cardboard.