Staff writer
The city of Goessel fills up four different recycling bins each week. Bins in Florence and Centre schools have been equally utilized.
Still, it costs the county more per month to pay the $138 fee to Waste Connections for the recycling bins than it does does for those materials to be transported to the Butler County Landfill as trash, Transfer Station Director Rollin Schmidt said Tuesday. The cost for all of the bins in the county, including bins in Burns, Durham, Lincolnville, Lost Springs, Pilsen, and Tampa, is $16,620 per year.
Using Sonoco recycling service that pays Marion County for recyclables, the county made $1,892.
With these realities in mind, and an attitude of fairness to every city involved, the Marion County Commission decided to send a letter to each city with a recycling bin asking them to consider paying for the bins themselves. The commission originally excluded the Centre, Florence, and Goessel bins from this consideration.
The commission is considering moving the county to a single stream system and placing bins in Marion and Hillsboro. Currently, Sonoco requires residents to sort recyclables. Another idea was making recycling mandatory by adding to property taxes.