An overabundance of recycling

Over the last two months, the issue of how to handle the proper disposal of garbage and recyclables has been a conundrum for both county and municipal leaders to develop a comprehensive solution for. As reported in this week’s story “FC Supervisors hear options on recycling,” there are many options to address contamination of the recycling services offered by the county, as well as the services being taken advantage of by the wrong persons.
All-in-all, the decisions currently being considered by policy makers is for increased signage at the site near the Franklin County Fair Grounds, imposing a fine for Hampton to enforce, as well as denoting how to recycle certain materials, before potentially more drastic action, like spending money to not only man the area, but to also set up video cameras. These solutions could end up controlling the problem but are still susceptible to being thwarted. While a perfect system doesn’t exist to remove the problem, there is a system that can save the county money.
Municipalities in Franklin County should strongly consider providing trash and recyclable removal for their constituents.
This method is currently practiced by the City of Latimer, which collects its residents’ trash once a week, with recyclables collected the first and third Fridays of the month. While there is technically no problem with the way other municipalities coordinate their waste removal, these methods leave too much room for error, resulting in the current circumstances at the county recycling site.
Most municipalities in Franklin County put the onus on residents of the community to subscribe to the services of a private company, who provide for waste removal — trash as we all currently know it. Now, these services also offer recyclable removal (recyclables being in the form of cardboard, tin cans, some plastics and glass bottles), but participation in curbside recycling isn’t required by city ordinances. Not only that, the size of recycling containers and frequency of collection of recyclables also differs from company to company, with some offered in packages, making personalized curbside waste removal challenging to follow.
What develops is an overabundance of recyclable material in the wake of two weeks without recycling, which in turn brings citizens to a crossroads: do they continue holding onto old cans, cardboard and plastics around their house, and wait for the company to take away the already full can? Or do they decide to put it in the trash bin and decide not to recycle? The conscientious people decide to drive down to the location in Franklin County and toss their recyclables in the bins, so that they don’t pollute the environment. What are we supposed to do about that? Tell them not to recycle? And thus is the dilemma facing the county and municipalities.
Yes, it is illegal to dump in places that you’re not supposed to, and it’s also a problem when TVs and couches end up where they shouldn’t. The county shouldn’t be paying for someone else’s waste. But the reason the county has to deal with that is a symptom of a larger problem, in that there’s a disconnect between the three-legged stool of municipalities, people and waste collectors.
The heart of the matter is that the services provided to residents in the varied municipalities are unequal, within it and around it. The drop off of pricing is creating problems down the chain of waste removal, countywide.
Bill Rowland, Director of the Landfill of North Iowa — of which Franklin County dumps its waste in — expressed that cutting down on waste that can be buried is a priority for the state, citing 1990s legislation requiring for curtailing of such waste by 25 percent of 1988 levels, and reducing statewide waste by 50 percent of 1988 levels. For landfills that couldn’t meet that requirement — many did not — they were required to take necessary action in order to get municipalities to adjust how much waste they were sending to the landfill. One of these options is volume based pricing, in which individuals are priced on the amount of trash bags being sent to the landfill. Rowland expressed that this presented an opportunity for residents to conserve the space in trash bags by recycling materials.
“No one can make anyone recycle,” Rowland said, “but it gives people the opportunity to.”
Making it so that ever municipality follows the Latimer model ensures that every single person is being given the same opportunity to not only recycle, but also effectively manage their waste output. In turn, this would make it so that residents of municipalities have no excuse when driving to a rural recycling site.
There are those that would say that this effectively passes the buck to the municipalities to pay for a county issue. After all, not everyone is misusing the site, and may like the parameters in which their provider services them. There’s also the matter of having the city take over waste removal, and the debate of whether or not it’s really in the city’s best interest to be handling that part of life that’s already managed in a somewhat effective way.
While it is true that the city would have to pick up the cost of either financing its own waste removal system or bidding out a contracted service, the fact of the matter is that people already pay for trash removal. This just re-designates who is receiving that customer pay, which may in the end, prove to be less expensive as the municipality would reach economies of scale. For communities who are smaller than others, maybe a joint service can be developed, just as our schools share services. Assuming that every home in Hampton is serviced in the same way, that would inherently bring costs down, and may provide better service options.
No one can make anyone recycle, but it’s apparent that there is a disconnect between provider and consumer, as well as a crossroads on whether or not to wait two weeks to recycle. The point is that people should be given a more generous opportunity to handle their waste output.

Hampton Chronicle

9 Second Street NW
Hampton, IA 50441
Phone: 641-456-2585
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