New City of Ames recycling location has successful first month

Recycling became just a bit easier for Ames residents.

The city recently opened a centralized recycling drop-off location with a "soft launch" in December. The facility located at Resource Recovery, 110 Center Avenue, allows citizens to physically drop off their recyclables instead of solely relying on curbside pick-up.

While homeowners can still partner with their trash hauler for at-home pick-ups, the new drop-off gives apartment residents and those not enrolled in the recycling program an alternative option.

The new drop-off has been successful so far, Ames Public Information Officer Susan Gwiasda said. The new program accepts all types of recyclables, a welcome change from recent years.

"We have always had a glass and food waste drop site on the north side of the plant, but we've added metals, twist-off plastics, cardboard, and mixed paper," Gwiasda said. "It's impressive; people are finding the bins, and they are filling up."

The city collected a good amount of recycling last month, according to Ames Superintendent of Resource Recovery Bill Schmidt. Two 40-yard recycling roll-offs and one 30-yard were filled with cardboard, which he guessed amounted to four tons. Additionally, three totes were filled with plastic, and another three were filled with mixed paper.

"For a soft launch, it's gone extremely well," Schmitt said. "We let people know about it but didn't do a big push on it because we wanted to wait until we got the rest of our roll-off containers later in the month. It's been going great, and now we have the rest of our equipment."

The recycling drop-off is available to Ames residents any day at all hours. Recyclables will be taken to Des Moines, combined with other materials, and sent to a recycling company.

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What material can be recycled?

Broken-down cardboard boxes, small pieces of metal, twist-off plastic bottles and mixed paper are all permitted at the new drop-off, which opened on Dec. 1.

Mixed paper includes junk mail, white and colored paper, magazines and phone books. Schmitt said residents don't need to remove staples or cellophane on envelopes, a job the recyclers handle.

Contamination is a major concern, Schmitt said.

If a non-recyclable item is tossed in with the recycling, the city might have to throw away more than the contaminated item.

Styrofoam, for instance, is not recyclable and has already been found mixed in with cardboard, mixed paper and plastics.

"We really want to make sure people know there's not a good way of recycling that right now," Schmitt said. "The best thing they can do with that is put it in the garbage."

He also emphasized that plastic recycling only includes plastic bottles with screw-on lids. Other types of plastics will not be accepted.

"We have a lot of people who think if it's plastic it's recyclable," Schmitt said. "But the vendor we're working with just wants ones with screw-on lids. We don't want other types of plastics."

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City hopes to expand recycling

The drop-off site is just the beginning of a city-wide recycling initiative.

The Ames Parks and Recreation Department has established a temporary drop-off site for live Christmas trees at East 13th Street at the bottom of the sledding hill once all decorations are removed.

A roll-off container is also there to recycle cardboard. The city plans to install more cardboard recycling throughout the community in the coming months.

"We're looking at ways to expand (the recycling program)," Schmitt said. "We expect it to continue to grow and build."

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Schmitt is impressed with how Ames residents have embraced not only the new drop-off location but also recycling as a whole. He's thrilled to hear how many residents talk about the importance of recycling at home with their families.

"It's been a good way for them to educate their family and some of their children on how to be sustainable and do their part," Schmitt said. "It's been a really good opportunity to be more sustainable in the community."

Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames’ new recycling drop-off location sees success after 'soft launch'