Every time recycling enthusiasts request city and county officials to investigate launching a recycling service, their arguments grow stronger.
At Monday’s Iola Council meeting, local recycling organizer Steve Strickler illustrated how he and other volunteers have already done the heavy lifting for municipal leaders.
To wit, they already have established a collection site where all sorts of paper, plastic and glass items are routinely sorted and hauled away to massive recycling centers.
More importantly, the volunteers have seen that recycling has become an ingrained habit by establishing the first Saturday of the month as “Recycling Day.” Come the designated day, a steady stream of cars frequents the recycling depot on the east side of town to deposit their recyclables.
As far as necessary equipment, that, too, has been answered, Strickler said, pointing out that the city and county fleets already contain the necessary baler, trailer and trucks.
The goal is twofold: Repurpose materials on a large scale so that, for example, a newspaper is turned into a paper cup. That in turn reduces the number of newspapers deposited in the county landfill.
A win-win.
COUNTY OFFICIALS often refer to the landfill as a moneymaker because it charges a handsome sum to other counties to bring their trash our way.
The most recent data show 13 counties across the region using the Allen County landfill. The counties pay tipping fees based on the amount and type of material they dump into our landfill. In 2022, the county collected $2.2 million between tipping fees and sales taxes.
In March, the county opened a new 10-acre cell at the landfill to accept more trash. The price tag was $2.36 million. At the rate Allen County is collecting trash, the new cell’s lifespan is less than 10 years. Previous cells took half as long to reach their limit.
A DIFFERENT TACT
So, what if we directed some of those resources to recycling?
The City of Iola currently picks up trash twice a week. That’s overkill.
As was suggested at Monday’s meeting, let’s do the math to see how much the city could save by reducing the service to one day a week. Most likely it’s enough in labor, fuel and equipment to go a long way toward providing a recycling service.
For the county, if less local trash were brought its way, that would allow it to extend the lifespan of the new cell as well as continue to accept that from other counties.
KUDOS go to Strickler and the small army of volunteers who have refused to let Iola’s recycling efforts die.
Our hope is that city and county leaders pick up the baton.
— Susan Lynn
