Tuesday’s evening meeting of the Allen County Commission saw an impressive turnout. The commission meetings are typically held at 8:30 a.m., but commissioners have decided to try a monthly evening meeting at the request of community members.
With a larger turnout than usual — 15 citizens attended, with about half as many chairs provided — this also meant more participation in the public comment portion of the meeting.
During this portion, volunteers with the recycling initiative in Allen County spoke about the work they do and the challenges they face.
Allen County Recycling was organized in 2022. Prior to this, the Iola Rotary Club led the initiative, initially by recycling only newspapers.
“They began in 1995, thanks in large effort to Emerson Lynn who was a member of the club,” said Dan Davis, volunteer.
Lynn served as publisher of the Iola Register at the time.
In 2023, volunteers with Allen County Recycling collected and baled 244 tons of cardboard, 48 bales of newspapers and magazines; 16 bales of plastic; as well as a significant amount of aluminum and tin.
“We are still trying to carry this out, strictly with volunteers,” said Davis.
The group currently utilizes the old Thompson Poultry building, north of Pump N Pete’s, 1700 East St., in Iola.
Davis says the building is “hardly adequate” for their needs.
“There is an area that we keep open so that people who want to can go out there and recycle items. People are constantly using that. A lot of people want to recycle and do recycle.”
Davis noted that there has been nearly 5 million pounds of recyclables — cardboard, aluminum cans, paper, and plastic — that the group has been able to keep out of the county’s landfill.
“That’s not a small amount and that’s being done by volunteers,” he said.
He also pointed to the shrinking lifespan of cells in the landfill as an example of why recycling is important.
Years ago, the landfill was utilized only by residents and municipalities of Allen County. “That’s not true anymore,” Davis said. “We have five or six counties that bring waste into our landfill now because it’s one of the few that allows that to happen.”
He added that, because of this, the cells fill up much quicker than they used to.
