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Tonganoxie’s curbside recycling growing

By Shawn Linenberger - | Sep 23, 2015

Estuardo Garcia

Empty water bottles, detergent containers and plastic bags fill the plastic only recycling bin installed by Honey Creek Disposal inc. in the parking lot of Triple Creek Realty. Kevin Weldon, owner of Honey Creek Disposal, said he wanted the new recycling center to help Tonganoxie residents to start living a greener life and reduce the amount of waste put into the new 95-gallon trash containers.

Tonganoxie will be completing its first year of curbside recycling later this fall.

The city approved opt-in recycling about a year ago and services through Honey Creek Disposal started last November.

Randy Sheldon with Honey Creek said about 250 Tonganoxie households utilize the service, which costs $4 monthly. That’s charge is on top of the base trash service fee for Tonganoxie residents, as the company is the city’s trash service provider.

“It still trickles in,” Sheldon said about new recycling customers. “You have a ton of people who move in, move out.”

The free recycling drop-off location along U.S. Highway 24-40 near Triple Creek Realty continues to be an option for residents.

“Still, our drop-off tends to get the majority,” Sheldon said about the bulk of Tonganoxie’s recycling. “Our drop-off just gets busier and busier.

The recycling center is a partnership with Hamm, Inc. The large operation was completed last year.

Eudora has opt-in services through Honey Creek, while De Soto has recycling services for all residents.

The Tonganoxie City Council grappled with whether to go the mandatory route, which would have cost each household another $2.25 on its trash bill or the opt-in option of $4.

“The participation is pretty good considering it’s fairly new,” Sheldon said about the service in Tonganoxie.

Yellow lids on the blue recycling bins that opt-in customers have specify what recyclable products Honey Creek accepts.

Glass is one material that Honey Creek takes that many centers are not accepting currently.

Other products are tin, plastic, paper and aluminum.

Signs on both the individual bins, as well as information on the drop-off site near Triple Creek Realty explain what the company accepts.

One material the center does not accept is the plastic bag. Sheldon said the bags continue to be an item the recycling center is receiving. The recycling center consists of a large assembly line that sorts out all of the recyclable materials Honey Creek receives. Plastic bags, however, cause issues with the machines properly breaking down and sorting all of the materials.

Along with not including plastic bags in the recycling bins, Sheldon said customers should be sure to wash out containers to ensure no soft drinks or other liquids still are in the containers. That goes for containers with solid materials, especially peanut butter.

Sheldon said soft drinks and other liquids could spill onto other products.

“That really contaminates the paper and makes it no good,” he said.

He said Styrofoam also gets thrown into the recycling bins. It’s another material that is not recyclable.

“If it’s not on the lid of the cart, throw it in the trash,” Sheldon said, referring to items listed on the yellow lids for curbside recycling customers.

Recycling is picked up every other week on trash days.

For more information about the service, call Honey Creek at 913-369-8999 or visit honeycreekdisposal.com.