While most rural Iowans have to haul their recyclables to a central drop-off center, many larger cities offer curbside recycling, and now Ames is joining that fold.
Ames has drop-offs for cardboard, glass and plastic, but the new service is designed to increase participation and conserve landfill space.
Mark Peebler, superintendent of the Ames Resource Recovery Plant, says curbside recycling will also reduce the number of trucks transporting garbage out of Ames.
“We’ve done a lot of different studies and research of other communities to see how they are able to attain or achieve their goals for recycling,” Peebler says, “and curbside recycling has the highest percentage rates and diversion from the landfill.”
Peebler says recycling bins were delivered earlier this month to single-family homes and multi-family properties with up to four units.
He says, “It’s much easier, much more convenient if you can just put those items that are lightly rinsed and commingled together into one container and put it out for collection.”
Peebler says the new service will help the city’s transition next year when it retires its waste-to-energy system, which diverts 65 to 70 percent of the waste, and burns about half of that to make electricity.
“Every ton that we keep out of the solid waste program, it’s less that we have to pay for transportation, less that we have to pay for disposal at the landfill,” he says, “and it’s less than we have to pay in DNR tonnage fees.”
Curbside recycling service in Ames starts the week of July 1st. Ames joins other Iowa communities with curbside recycling, including: Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, the Des Moines metro, Iowa City, Sioux City, and Waterloo. Mason City is launching an automated “Cart Smart” program on July 6th.
(By Rachel Cramer, Iowa Public Radio)