Bill King told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning this Saturday’s paper drive would be the last based on the parking lot of the old Iola IGA store.
When Iola Rotarians, a sponsor of the effort, gather next to load waste newspapers and magazines into semitrailers, they will be parked near Allen County’s Emergency Response Center, 410 N. State St.
King, director of Public Works, explained the change in location was prompted by razing of the grocery store and anticipated eventual development of the area.
The county has five trailers that are used in the every-other-month drives. Three are parked at the central site, soon to be near the dispatch center, a fourth is left outside the Register, where excess newspapers are loaded, and the fifth is at the county landfill, a mile southeast of LaHarpe.
Full trailers are towed to Central Fiber Corporation’s recycling plant at Wellsville, where the paper is made into cellulose insulation.
Ken Russell, Central Fiber’s assistant plant manager, told the Register the process was a double blessing for the environment, paper is kept out of the landfill and the insulation helps reduce heating costs in homes and businesses.
Also, Allen County purchases landfill cover manufactured by Central Fiber several times a year.
“A half inch of the material, made from paper, takes the place of six inches of dirt in required landfill cover,” King said.
The landfill cover is mixed with water and sprayed atop debris after it is packed into the local landfill cell, he noted.
“That is another way to give your landfill longer life,” Russell said.
The periodic paper drive, started as a cooperative effort of Iola Rotarians, the Register and the county, also is a source of revenue for the many participating organizations.
Russell said on average 30,000 pounds of paper was brought to Wellsville from the Iola project every other month and currently was fetching $85 a ton, or about $2,500 for an average load.
The paper drive has been in place about 12 years, which means more than 2 million pounds — 1,000 tons — of paper have been kept out of the county landfill.
FOR YEARS people donating newspapers and magazines for the drive have been encouraged to place them in paper grocery sacks.
“It’s hard to find paper sacks now,” King said, and a good alternative is cardboard boxes. Plastic sacks are discouraged; they have to be removed from the stream of paper before it can be recycled.
