Iolans will have an opportunity to embrace more comprehensive recycling at the Rotary Club’s every-other-month paper drive on May 14.
Cardboard and aluminum and tin cans also will be accepted for the first time, said Donna Grigsby, a member of a Rotary committee working to expand local recycling.
“Our goal is to reduce the amount of recyclable material going to the (Allen County) landfill,” she said.
The paper drive, started more than 20 years ago, has been successful. Untold tons of newspapers and magazines have been carried to Wellsville, to be recycled into cellulose insulation. In more recent years some has returned to the landfill, where it is mixed with water to make a slurry that’s used to cover waste.
Rotarians will continue to concentrate on paper goods, and are making arrangements to have cardboard baled so it may be transported to a recycler.
“ACARF (Allen County Animal Rescue Foundation) and the PTO and Lions Club in Humboldt will take aluminum and steel cans,” Grigsby reported. All do now as a means of raising money for various projects. ACARF is a no-kill animal shelter and the two Humboldt organizations have long lists of civic projects they fund locally.
On May 14 ACARF will benefit from metal collection. The PTO group will in July, the Lions in September.
Recycling has some rules attached. Cardboard will have to broken down and flattened. Cans that contained food will have to be rinsed clean.
Grigsby hopes the day will come when recycling here will be as pervasive as it was when she and husband Stan lived in Virginia. “We had curb-side recycling and each week I’d fill a 60-gallon container with paper, plastic and glass, and only have a 10-gallon bag of trash that went to the landfill,” she said.
The collection, of paper and other recyclable material, as usual will be at the old IGA property on North State Street, just north of the National Guard Armory. Hours are 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Several Rotary members, including the Grigsby, are working through a committee to increase recycling in Iola and Allen County. Anyone interested in joining in or sharing ideas may contact members at http://recycle.iola-rotary.org/.
