City of Columbia hosts recycling drop-off event Saturday
Marie Moyer
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia residents will be able to drop off glass and other recyclables Saturday during a city recycling drop-off event.
According to City of Columbia Solid Waste, acceptable materials in Saturday’s drop-off include:
1 or 2 plastic bottles and containers with screw-on lids
Aluminum and metal cans
Glass bottles and jars
Cardboard, newspaper and office paper
Since the city’s recycling center was destroyed by the April 2025 tornado, recycling facilities have been limited, with the city pausing drop-off centers indefinitely and no longer accepting certain recyclables like glass or plastic clamshell packaging.
“This is kind of a test project to see how well it works to give the residents another option,” City of Columbia Utilities Spokesman Jason West said. “Some people may be out of town on their collection day, so this is an opportunity for them to go ahead and get that out instead of having it sit around in their garage.”
Plastic and paper materials from Saturday’s event will be baled and sent to Jefferson City for processing. The glass will be collected and stored, with the city in the middle of looking into a glass processing contract with a Kansas City company.
West adds that the City is set to increase recycling pick-ups, from once every two weeks to once a week, starting Monday. Curbside recycling will follow the updated recycling guidelines, like no glass and certain plastics.
“We will be once a week, same as your trash collection, we’ll just do trash and recycling on the same day every week now,” West said.
The recycling center is operational, but doesn’t have a cover structure to protect absorbent materials and the machinery, so processing depends on weather conditions. In December 2025, the city approved construction for a new recycling site.
The city received bids from contractors for a new recycling center in the spring.
“Our finance department has those bids that we received on rebuilding the building,” West said. “They’re going through and being able to make summaries up of comparing the bids, then we’ll be able to take a look at those and see which is the best for the project.”
City officials add that they hope for a structure to be built by the beginning of 2028.
Saturday’s event will take place at the Grissum Building on Lakeview Street from 8 a.m. to noon. Residents are encouraged to enter from the east Lakeview Avenue entrance.