A countywide recycling effort, spearheaded and run entirely by volunteers, is being put on hold as organizers determine what to do next.
Dan Davis, president of Allen County Recycling, made the announcement Thursday in front of a crowd of about 50 during a 90-minute brainstorming session on how to proceed if recycling in Allen County is to continue.
Allen County Recycling is a non-profit organization that launched earlier this year after the Iola Rotary Club discontinued its popular recycling program at the end of 2021.
Davis noted the Rotarians didn’t give up the effort because of lack of interest.
Rather, “it became a victim of its own success,” Davis said. “The Rotary board took a look at the program and how it had grown and decided it’s too big for us.” (Davis, too, is a Rotarian.)
Since then, Allen County Recycling has continued to collect cardboard from more than 160 businesses across the county, purchased a baler and secured a new collection site behind Pump N Pete’s on the east edge of Iola.
Pete’s officials allow the group to use the vacant building for free, but there have been expenses, such as extending electric service to the facility.
Allen County Recycling knew it would have a smaller volunteer pool to keep the program going.
After eight months, the group acknowledges it needs much more help to stay afloat.
“We would need at least three teams,” each with a pickup truck and trailer tandem capable of hauling multiple totes filled with cardboard or other recyclables to Iola each week, Davis said.
The commitment of each volunteer could be as little as a few hours a month — if enough teams of volunteers could be found.
The group also would need somebody on hand at the recycling drop-off location to sort through the cardboard, plastics, metal or glass, and to operate the baler. The new baler is significantly more efficient than the one in use when it was operated by the Rotarians, Davis said.
On top of that, Davis encouraged those in the audience to be willing to lobby their local city and county leaders, “to let them know the people in Allen County are willing to support recycling.”
Davis compared recycling to other “quality-of-life” services operated by local municipalities.
Iola and Humboldt, for example, operate swimming pools each summer, knowing from the start they will not earn enough money to pay for the cost of filling and treating the pool water, hiring lifeguards and buying chemicals.
But they do it anyway.
The same goes for parks, Davis continued.
“A city does not make any money having a park,” he said. “It’s a quality of life issue. They know it’s going to be a better place to live in a community with a park.”
Davis acknowledged a mass recycling effort, if it were to be funded by the county or by a community, will likely never turn a profit.
“The whole idea behind this was not to make money,” he continued.
But it’s still a wise investment, Davis contended.
For one, any materials sent to a recycling center are materials kept out of the Allen County Landfill.
Since 2019, when the Rotarians expanded their recycling efforts to include plastics and glass, the group brought in nearly 1 million pounds of cardboard, 160,000 pounds of paper and 90,000 pounds of various forms of plastic and 120,000 pounds of glass.
“That’s not an insignificant number,” Davis noted.
Totals for aluminum and tin weren’t collected, he added, because those materials usually were just taken straight to Ray’s Metal Depot in LaHarpe, with proceeds handed over to Iola’s school district.
“Our efforts have been a success,” Davis said. “They’ve kept a lot of recyclables out of our landfill.”
WHILE it may be difficult to convince a municipality to take on a service that, in a best-case scenario, is a break-even proposition, Iola may be different, Davis said.
That’s because the city already has the basic infrastructure in place for a large-scale recycling effort in that city crews already travel to every residence in town twice a week for trash pick-up.
“I have never lived anyplace where we have trash pickup twice a week,” he said. “It’s a very unique situation we have here.”
Perhaps a system could be arranged in which one of those days for pick-up is dedicated for recyclables, Davis offered.
As is, the city essentially disincentives any kind of recycling effort, he continued.
“Everyone in Iola is conditioned to say ‘I can throw away as much as I want because they’re gonna come pick it up twice a week,’” Davis said, “and that this landfill will last forever.”
The Allen County Landfill is equipped to last for generations, he admitted, because much of the limestone in the quarry can be crushed and used for county road repair.
“We’ve got a great big landfill, and we keep making more room in it,” Davis said. “I’ve heard all sorts of figures. That in 100 years, this landfill will still be viable.”
Yet, Davis also notes visiting with long-time Allen Countians who recalled a time when driving by the landfill site was hardly noteworthy.
“Unless the wind was blowing a certain direction, you may not even realize the landfill was there,” Davis said. “I don’t think you can miss it any more.”
A growing mound of trash-covered dirt becomes more prominent by the day, Davis said, “and there’s plastic bags against all the fences.
“It would be great if we could convince the county and the cities in Allen County that there are enough people in this county who will support recycling,” he said.
ATTENDEES discussed several options, including reaching out to the Allen County Jail to see if inmates would be willing to assist with the weekly cardboard collections.
The idea is intriguing, Davis replied, but the group would need to ensure the prisoners’ work is truly voluntary and not a form of indentured servitude.
Talk also revolved around Coffey County’s recycling program, made possible because Coffey County is flush with cash because of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant.
Davis estimated Coffey County spends about $200,000 annually to keep the recycling effort afloat, while bringing in about $58,000.
DAVIS concluded the meeting by encouraging those in attendance to either find volunteers to help with regular tote pickups across the county, or to make their voices known, either by reaching out to local governing bodies, or signing a petition declaring their support for recycling efforts.
Elected officials from Iola, Humboldt, Allen County and Gas were in attendance.
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