Apr. 7—Input from Joplin residents could help city officials adjust trash and recycling services, and reduce what is sent to landfills for the next 20 years.

A survey is currently being taken by an engineering consultant, Burns and McDonnell, to obtain information that will go into a new master plan for trash, recycling and yard waste disposal.

Meetings were held Wednesday at City Hall to explain what the master plan will do and to allow those in the trash and recycling business as well as residents to participate in the survey.

"The necessity of the master plan itself is for the city to start figuring out a way to reduce our load of trash that goes to the landfills and how we can recycle or reuse some items in a better way," said Lynden Lawson, the city's assistant public works director over operations.

By hiring the consultant, Burns and McDonnell can evaluate and make recommendations on how to meet goals that are to be established to reduce waste that goes into landfills. Services involved include trash pickup, curbside recycling pickup, recycling center operations, yard waste disposal for composting, and tree limb drop off that provides chipped mulch for use by residents.

Lawson said the City Council as well as city staff will analyze the study's results so that any needed changes can be discussed.

"The other part of this is education," he said. "There's a lot of things that go on with solid waste where we haven't done a good job of educating our citizens. By coming here today and having this forum, it gives citizens a chance to find out about something they may not have known about."

One example is the handling of yard waste. Lawson said the city and the trash service allow residents to put out yard waste such as tree limbs with the trash.

"It's illegal in Missouri for the yard waste to go to a landfill. That means that whenever they pick up that yard waste, it has to go out of state, like a state of Kansas landfill."

If yard waste was not mixed in with trash, the trash could go to the Region M landfill at Lamar, where tipping fees charged to dump it goes to the state Department of Natural Resources, which provides recycling services and grants for special programs across in the state. In this area, that is the Region M program.

A Region M representative, Patty Overman, said the grant funding goes to the district, which encompasses Jasper, Newton, McDonald, Barton and Vernon counties. Region M used the money to sponsor free disposal events that allow residents to get rid of items not allowed in landfills or not typically handled by local recycling centers.

Those items include electronics and tires. Region M can route those items to recyclers who specialize in harvesting them for reusable materials. For instance, tires are shredded and the wire in tire belts and beads extracted. The rubber material is ground and remade into composite lumber that is used to build park benches and tables. Some of those have been placed in Wildcat Glades in Joplin, Overman said.

The master plan is intended to help the city reduce what goes to a landfill. It also will help the city set measurable goals for disposal. Those goals are required by the Missouri Solid Waste Management Law. In addition, it could recommend adjustments to services indicated by the preferences of residents expressed in the surveys. Improving customer satisfaction is another of the goals.

Julie Davis of Burns and McDonnell said data will be collected to include information on things like how many tons of waste are taken from the city to landfills, how many people participate in recycling programs, and materials processed through those programs. Burns and McDonnell describes itself as a full-service engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting solutions firm, based in Kansas City, Missouri.

When the data and surveys are collected, all of the information will be evaluated to form recommendations. Before the report is finalized, the Burns and McDonnell representatives will return in the summer to get public input on the proposed recommendations. Davis said the final report will likely come back in late summer or early fall.

It's not too late for residents to take the survey, Davis said. It will be available for about two more weeks.

Paper copies of the survey can be obtained at City Hall, 602 S. Main St., or it can be filled out online at surveymonkey.com/r/JoplinSWMPpr.