A group of Iolans want to see Iola and Allen County working together on a recycling venture.
Of the 20 or so advocates who attended Tuesday’s Iola City Council meeting, 10 spoke out in favor of some form of government project to encourage recycling.
Their visit came after Allen County Recycling, a group of local volunteers, shuttered their recycling center in a vacant building at the east edge of town.
The group cited their lack of manpower and equipment to keep up with properly sorting and processing the vast amounts of cardboard, glass and plastic recyclables deposited regularly at the depot, on top gathering and transporting bins of cardboard boxes to Iola from dozens of businesses around the county.
“It’s a workout every time we go out there,” Allen County Recycling member Karen Gilpin told the Council, who estimated she’d spend two or three hours at the center every time she stopped by just to keep the materials organized.
Gilpin also said those who attended Tuesday’s meeting were a fraction of those who wanted to attend.
“I got probably 15 texts from people who said they’d be here if they could,” Gilpin added.
“I want to challenge the bright minds in this room, the leaders in this room, to really take this seriously,” Maria Unruh said when it was her turn to speak. “Bring in the community. We want to keep recycling here. It’s important to us. … Recognize we need to take care of our youth. Embrace that and continue to think critically on how we can keep recycling here.”
While those in the audience spoke in generalities, agreeing specifics should be nailed down later, they noted there are options for both the city and county to consider.
Gilpin, Myra Gleason and Elizabeth Wilcox all pointed to Iola’s existing policy of running twice-a-week trash pickup for residents.
“Coming here, it was odd having two-day trash pickup,” Gleason said. “For me, it’s a matter of are we using our resources correctly?”
Gleason moved to Iola last fall.
“I didn’t know any community ever did that,” before moving to Iola, Wilcox added, who moved to Iola in late 2022.
Gleason and Gilpin both suggested the city devise a plan to have one pickup day for trash, and dedicate the second day for dealing with recyclables.
By eliminating a second trash pickup day, the city could allocate some of those workers to a recycling effort, Gilpin said.
