A local recycling effort is getting a boost from Iola officials.
City Council members approved Monday a pair of requests from Allen County Recycling, a local non-profit organization that takes in a number of recyclable materials for residents, but focuses primarily on cardboard.
Council members voted, 7-1, to reimburse the recycling group about $1,400 for expenses they incurred to extend electric service to their new location at the old Thompson Poultry plant in the 1700 block of East Street (just north and west of Pump N Pete’s).
Additionally, Council members voted, 5-3, to forgive the group up to $500 annually in utility costs.
“We’re not in this to make money,” noted Steve Strickler, one of the founders of Allen County Recycling. “But we feel that strongly about keeping this program going.”
He described the request as “a pretty good investment by the city.”
“We’ve been pretty well accepted by the public,” Strickler continued.
Council members debated the requests, agreeing that a strong recycling program benefits the city and county, but differed on what type of help the city should offer.
They noted recycling extends the life of the Allen County Landfill by keeping out large volumes of cardboard, glass, plastics and other materials.
“I wish I was better organized to tell you how many millions of pounds of cardboard we’ve kept out of the landfill,” Strickler said.
But economic factors are hurting the organization, he noted.
In years past, organizers would break even, or better, when the price of recycled cardboard fetched about $200 a ton. Profits then were returned directly back into the recycling effort.
But cardboard prices have cratered in recent years, to about $35 a ton.
That means Allen County Recycling spends more transporting the cardboard to large-scale recycling centers — the past two shipments have gone to Pryor, Okla. — than it receives for the cardboard.
“Being the gamblers that we are, we’re gonna hang onto (the cardboard) for a while,” Strickler said, until the price rebounds, or cheaper transportation avenues can be found.
“But it keeps this out of the landfill,” he quickly added, “which has always been our goal — to keep out anything that can be recycled. We’ve proven we can make this work.”
