Curbside recycling is coming to Tonganoxie.

How prevalent it will be rests with local residents.

The Tonganoxie City Council approved, 4-0, voluntary curbside recycling at Monday’s meeting.

That means each household can determine whether it wants to opt in for recycling services.

The council has debated for several weeks whether to offer the service. Honey Creek Disposal, which provides the city’s trash service, offered curbside options in recent months. Mandatory recycling would cost $2.25 monthly per household, while voluntary would cost $4 monthly for each family that opts in to the program.

Council members have agreed that recycling was beneficial for the greater good, but they grappled with whether to mandate the service.

Monday’s meeting served as a microcosm, as the council — Mayor Jason Ward and council member Chris Donnelly were absent — debated whether to make it a universal service or limit it to those who want the service.

Council member Andy Gilner made a motion to make the service mandatory. Gilner and Jim Truesdell voted for mandatory, while Kara Reed and Bill Peak voted for voluntary.

“I would rather see it as voluntary in a sense that it grows by people’s acceptance,” Peak said.

The council continued the discussion after the deadlock and eventually picked voluntary service unanimously. With the option to go to mandatory down the road, the council decided the opt-in option made the most sense for now.

The council also approved a two-year contract extension for trash service Monday. The rate will continue at $12.75 monthly. The city charges $15 for trash services to cover administrative costs.

Protest period

Because the council voted to offer recycling services, the city must publish a legal notice of its intention in The Mirror and await a 21-day protest period.

City Attorney Mike Kelly said it’s a measure the Legislature passed during its last session.

He said the wait previously was longer.

Other businesses can submit recycling service bids to the city during that time.

A hearing also will take place during a council meeting at the end of the period.

Recycling plans

Honey Creek already offers a recycling drop-off in town along U.S. 24-40 south of Smiley Road.

But if the council stays with the business for recycling services after the protest period, that service would expand.

Customers who want to opt in would receive a 65-gallon container for recycled items.

The containers have a yellow lid with instructions about what can be recycled. Regular trash bins are 95-gallon containers with blue lids.

Recycling is picked up every other week. Honey Creek already offers curbside recycling in Eudora and De Soto.

Randy Weldon with Honey Creek said customers with overflowing recyclables can put their own additional containers or boxes filled with recyclables at the curb behind the company issued bin. If they somehow denote that the container is for recycling, they will pick it up.

The current recycling drop-off along U.S. 24-40 will remain regardless of curbside services. Plastic, aluminum cans and cardboard are accepted, but Honey Creek will be accepting glass in the fall.

Eventually, Weldon said the company plans to make the spot a co-mingle drop-off which means recycling won’t have to be separated.

Honey Creek gives its aluminum cans to the local Boy Scout Troop to turn in for cash. Weldon said that would continue. He also was looking at ways to partner with the schools.

Honey Creek is partnering with Hamm of Perry to create a recycling center.

Hamm, which offers construction, mining and waste services, is turning a Honey Creek building into a recycling center.

When finished, Hamm will operate the center and process glass, aluminum, tin, paper, plastic and cardboard.

Weldon said Honey Creek would be able to drop off its recycling hauls there at its property near U.S. 24-40 and Kansas Highway 32 when the center is finished.

If the city were to select Honey Creek after the required protest period, curbside services likely would start in October when the company adds glass to the accepted recyclables list.