The first domino to approve a countywide recycling program fell in place Monday when Iola Council members voted to add an employee dedicated to recycling efforts.
But with that decision remains several unanswered questions, including when the system will launch, and how it will operate.
The 4-3 roll call vote capped an hourlong debate as Council members discussed the intricacies of the proposal presented by members of Allen County Recycling.
Their proposal is for the city and county to each hire a full-time employee to retrieve cardboard from participating businesses, and then spend two days a week sorting and breaking down cardboard.
The county worker would travel to neighboring communities two days a week to get cardboard, while the Iola employee would get cardboard solely from local businesses.
Collection points would be set up in Iola and neighboring communities as well, while Humboldt will continue its own cardboard collection efforts through the Works family.
A team of volunteers would continue to help with the efforts, particularly as the cardboard is sorted and processed.
Businesses would be charged to have cardboard collected from their sites. There would be no charge for residents to take the cardboard and other recyclables to drop-off locations.
Aside from the fee charged to businesses, the proposal largely is a continuation of what Allen County Recycling, and the Iola Rotary Club before it, has done for years, noted Steve Strickler, speaking on behalf of the non-profit.
“We tried to do this as simply as possible,” Strickler said. “There are a lot of different ways to do this, but this is the way we’ve done it. … We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Council members pressed Strickler on several elements of their proposal, such as if city workers would be asked to go out into the county to retrieve the cardboard, and how much participating businesses would be charged.
Iola employees would work strictly inside city limits, Strickler responded. The monthly fee has not been discussed.
MAYOR STEVE French kicked off the discussion by noting Iola would be months away, at the earliest, from being a part of the program.
“Let’s keep in mind, we just voted on our 2026 budget, which goes into effect next year, and we have no funding” for recycling, French said. “We have no line item. We discussed maybe being able to absorb a part-time employee if we needed to, to look at this on a small scale.”
Councilwoman Joelle Shallah asked what would happen if a business opts not to participate.
Would other businesses be forced to pay more, she asked. And would those businesses be able to pay less for their normal trash service, or do they pay a flat rate?
