OLIVIA -- Renville County is interested in working with Redwood County to increase recycling, and also looking for improved service from its contracted hauler for recycled items.
Commissioner Bob Fox gave Travis Christensen with TCW Disposal, of Hamburg, a tongue lashing for the complaints he said city clerks in the county have been receiving from residents. Fox told Christensen during the commissioners work session Tuesday that city clerks told him the "worst day of the week'' was the one scheduled for collecting recyclables in their communities.
Fox said there are complaints about pickup schedules being missed at drop-off sites, and debris blowing around when containers are overfilled. There were also complaints that items placed for curbside pickup were not always taken.
"You have a lot of work to do, I would say,'' said Fox after outlining the litany of problems he has heard.
Christensen said the company has made improvements, but indicated that it did not anticipate the volume of materials it would be hauling.
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He told the commissioners that the company which was previously responsible for the county's recycling scheduled its pickups for every other week at sites in each of the county's 10 communities and Lake Allie. TCW has placed smaller drop-off containers at the 11 sites, but initially scheduled a pick up for at least once a week at each. It has since increased the schedule to collect recyclables on two and sometimes three days a week at each site, he said.
He noted that the company has also had to "red tag'' items placed for curbside pickup, such as cardboard that is not broken down as required. He said efforts to educate people about what they must do with recyclables have helped.
The commissioners are seeking to greatly increase recycling in the county to reduce the volume of materials going to the landfill. A recent report on the landfill projected that the county will need space for 138,000 cubic yards (or 75,900 tons) of waste in the next 10 years. The current capacity of the landfill cell is 265,000 cubic yards. The life of the landfill cell could be lengthened if the county can increase recycling efforts. Fox noted that Renville County has a 34 percent recycling rate, as compared to nearly 70 percent in Redwood County.
The neighboring county is interested in expanding its own recycling efforts and considering the possibility of building a new facility.
