Boone County, University of Missouri look to alternatives after recycling paused in Columbia
Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Boone County and the University of Missouri are looking for recycling alternatives after the recent Sunday storm took out Columbia’s recycling facilities.
Because the Columbia processing plant is the county’s main facility, Boone County had to suspend operations at its own recycling drop-off sites.
“The City’s loss is to a lesser extent also our loss,” Boone County commissioner Kip Kendrick said in a statement. “The County will be evaluating alternatives that might get the program back in service prior to the City being ready to handle recycling again. However, to be realistic there aren’t a lot of alternatives; the last time the County attempted to bid out the recycling processing service there were no responsive bids.”
One business owner in the city is worried about waste as the city looks for a solution to its new recycling problem.
“I do do a lot of recycling at home with all of our food containers,” said Columbia resident and owner of The Clean Refill Leah Christian said, “I think it’s going to be hard on the community to not have an option for recycling for some time and I’m kind of nervous about all that plastic that’s going to get thrown away.”
The City of Hallsville posted an announcement Monday reporting the removal of recycling bins, as it also uses the Columbia facility.
“The Board of Aldermen will be discussing alternative recycling options at the May Board meeting, including the potential to work with a service provider depending on cost,” Hallsville City Administrator Kenyetta Ridgway-Sample said in a statement.
MU spokesman Travis Zimpfer said that the school used the city’s recycling facilities for plastic and mixed recycling. The university is similarly looking for temporary alternatives.
“We are still working to determine if we will need to make changes on campus due to the unprecedented nature of this event,” he said.
Christian’s business accepts empty reusable plastic and glass bottles where customers can use the containers to fill up on toiletries — such as shampoo and laundry detergent. Christian’s mission is to ultimately help reduce the total number of containers going to the landfill.
Christian adds that she’s happy to accept clean containers, The Clean Refill is not a drop-off center and instead she encourages others to use the time to focus on reducing and reusing products as the city rebuilds.
“When you throw plastic away, it doesn’t biodegrade, it takes about 500 years for all that plastic to break down,” Christian said. “Start thinking about opportunities to refill and reuse some of those bottles.”