Marion County faces recycling problems

A new hot topic had residents of Marion County stirred up after the Monday, Jan. 27 commission meeting. By the evening, social media was flooded with upset people over the unexpected news that recycling had been going to the landfill for an undisclosed amount of time and would continue to for the foreseeable future until a solution could be found.

The news appeared to catch many by surprise including town officials.

“I had no idea any of this was going on until I received a call from another town’s city administrator,” said Hillsboro City Administrator Larry Paine.

As a result of the frustrations many citizens raised, Commissioner Kent Becker asked that the topic of recycling be added on the Commission meeting’s agenda on Friday.

When the meeting opened on Friday, Commissioner Jonah Gehring stated that he thought it was time that the people of Marion County knew that instead of their items being recycled like they thought they were, it was all going to the landfill.

Becker then mentioned how the commissioners hands were tied with this situation. He stated that he called a few counties to see what they were doing. He also got two numbers for recyclers to call in Hutchinson.

“The first one said, I’m sorry we only do concrete and asphalt. And the other one, the number is disconnected. So I called Ft. Riley again just to see where they were. They said they have no problem with our recycling but he can’t give us a timeline with where they were. He did say that all of the stuff they do get from Marion County comes in covered in dust and creates an issue for them in that they have to open all of their doors to clean out their air in the building,” said Becker.

Gehring stated that Marion County does about 12 tons every other week.

Gehring also asked Hillsboro City employee Dale Dalke to share what progress Hillsboro had made since Monday.

Dalke shared that the city had already heard from many upset residents because recycling is a big deal to them.

“Larry Paine did find an alternate source. It would end up in Hutch but we would take it to McPherson. We would pay McPherson,” said Dalke.

“Oh, I wonder if it would work for us to take our stuff to McPherson, too,” said Becker.

Dalke went on to explain another option would be to go to more of the sorting model where plastics are not accepted so it is mainly cardboard and aluminum.

The issue of costs came up since some of the places that will take recycling will charge over $100 per ton. Plus there is the cost of hauling the items.

“I think there are enough assets in our county, that people would be willing to help us somehow if we were willing to keep it going somehow. And they would put up with the inconvenience just to get through this. Because there is going to be some inconvenience,” said Gehring.

Gehring brought up the idea of having other towns in Marion County join in with their recycling as well to add more numbers to the solution and mentioned that he had spoken with Goessel who would be interested in being involved.

“We have to do something because this is very important to our county. We can’t just put it off and wait,” said Gehring. “And we have to put the real honesty out to the public.”

The meeting ended with no real decisions being made. Gehring suggested discussing some more on Monday at the next commission meeting.

Hillsboro forms a plan

Paine spent most of the week pursuing different options for recycling for Hillsboro.

“Mayor Lou said there will be recycling so that is what I am going to make sure happens,” said Paine.

Paine made numerous calls and spoke with experts all over. He also drove out to McPherson to visit with John Hawk of McPherson Area Solid Waste Utility. Hawk stated that they would be willing to accept Hillsboro recycling for $100 a ton. This seems to be the best option at this time according to Paine especially since there are not many options.

The basic problem with recycling now is the market place. China stopped buying all our recycled material so the disposal stream has dried up.,” said Paine. “A number of communities have stopped collecting recyclables as a result.

Paine explained that the reason China is no longer accepting the majority of the US’s recycling is because there are so many impurities causing it to be cost-ineffective for them.

Paine also mentioned that he was in conversation with Becker to see if there was a way that Hillsboro and the county could possibly work together.

Becker seemed positive about his conversation with Paine and just moving forward in general.

“I talked to the plant manager at Ft. Riley just to see where we were at and if we had any kind of time frame and if they would be able to start taking some of our recyclables again. He said ‘well, we want to, but we are having to readjust how we do business because we went from a 7 man crew to a four-man crew.’ So I am sure they are trying to figure out how to take care of all of Ft. Riley and I don’t know if they have to take care of Junction City or not. But he said as soon as they got all of their procedures figured out how they are going to do this they would be receptive to taking it again. But he didn’t give me a time frame,” said Becker.

Becker stated that the county did not have to pay Ft. Riley to take it. The county hauled it to Fr. Riley who took it from them.

“Now if we can figure out something at least short term it’s probably going to cost us if we have to pay by the ton if we can find a place that will take the recyclables,” said Becker.

When asked how long Ft. Riley has not been taking our recyclables, Becker answered,” I don’t know. We haven’t taken anything to them since sometime in mid-December. Sometime back in there I guess. All they did was call our transfer station to let them know that they couldn’t take them for the time being and that’s when we found out they have to go to the dump for landfill.”

Becker would like to keep all of the recycling coming into Marion in one spot so that it could be gathered in one spot. He is hopeful that Ft. Riley will resume taking our recyclables soon.

While most of Marion County was using the same method of Ft. Riley, Peabody has been using their own system. According to their city office, they use Wichita Waste Management out of Wichita which picks up both their trash and their recycling and takes the trash to the landfill while the recycling is recycled.

For now, Paine is asking that Hillsboro residents at least continue to go through the movements of recycling even if it takes a week or two before items are making it back to recycling instead of the landfill in order to stay in the habit of it all.

Stay tuned as we learn how our county leaders solve this big issue that our county is facing.

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