Columbia, Mo (KMIZ)
The Columbia City Council is set to meet on Monday night and — once again — recycling will be one of the topics discussed.
One of the items open to the public in the council’s pre-meeting agenda is the results of a Recycling and Waste Diversion Study. The project includes data collection, responding to recommendations and technical documents for waste projects.
Waste collection has been a hot-button issue in Columbia over the past several years. In May, the city suspended recycling collection due to understaffing. It was expected to begin again in June, but was extended. A date for curbside recycling to begin again has not been set.
The City’s curbside collection study, which was set to find out what percentage of households routinely put material at the curb, was stopped after the collection was suspended in the middle of the study.
However, in the two weeks before the study was halted, the City found that the number of curbside set-outs was smaller than they anticipated, according to the report. It also learned that many people use the drop-off center on their off week or as needed so counting curbside set-outs is not the best indicator of participation in the recycling program.
Another goal of the data collection was to evaluate the quality and the contents of the recyclables delivered to the recycling facility. The study found that 82% of residential container recycling — which includes bottles, cans and jugs — was correct recycling while 18% was incorrect recycling.
It also found that 95% of residential paper recycling was correct recycling. According to the City’s PowerPoint, the high quality of residential curbside material supports the theory that contamination and residues at the Materials Recovery Facility primarily come from the drop-off centers and/or commercial recycling bins. As a result, the recycling program is losing quality tons to the aging MRF.
The most-lost recyclable was cardboard.
The City also took steps to engage members of the community with a survey on BeHeard Como, an open house in March, and meetings with City Council members.
The City estimates that as much as $2 million worth of recyclables are thrown away in a year. To improve curbside collection the project team is currently talking about a method to “dual-stream curbside recyclables using a cart and a single-body truck.”
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