Six more weeks of winter? The groundhog had yet to see his shadow, or not, as this week’s deadline approaches. For sure, snow and cold affected recycling rates at Keep Alliance Beautiful as we said goodbye to 2022. Our organization assisted Box Butte County and surrounding area residents in sending 770,425 pounds of material back into the nation’s green economy last year.
One million pounds in a year has been KAB’s lofty goal since the recycling center was on pace in the first quarter of 2020 with 249,608. Instead, solid 2020-22 totals showed at least 770,000 annually – peaking at 794,640 pounds for 2021. Additionally, 2019 was the most recent sub-700,000-pound year with about 333 tons.
Corrugated cardboard (376,231 pounds this past year), in our current operational model, continues to account for around half overall recycling volume. I am intrigued with trends among the other categories tracked. Nine of 13 weighted materials, including the 2,632 pounds grouped under “other”, showed gains above 2021 totals (listed in pounds):
> #1-7 Plastics – 53,335
> Milk Jugs – 14,030
> Steel/Tin Cans – 24,399
> Fiber Board – 53,650
> Mixed Paper – 134,171
> Glass – 70,066
> Hefty Bag – 14,260
> Paint – 5,061
Among those listed above, plastic, milk jugs, steel/tin cans and fiber board and Hefty bags also posted their highest numbers in the past four years. Residents have kept bringing more containers since KAB began taking #1-7 plastics versus just #1-2 in the second quarter of 2019. Mostly food containers, steel/tin doubled in comparison to 2021. As more people learn about what goes into the large orange bags, we have baled at least a ton of Hefty bags the past seven quarters. Just over seven tons in 2022 (compared to four the previous year) of the formerly “unrecyclable” plastic left Alliance en route to Omaha for a new life as lumber.
You can gain insight when painting a picture by our numbers. However, let me add a few intangibles: Wet years impact the amount of viable cardboard available due to the design of our totes serving businesses and others though we dry as much as possible. No 2022 data was available on the weight of Ink cartridges that were collected and shipped. We do not track volumes of categories by origin, except those collected at Box Butte General Hospital. So, it is difficult to quantify, for example, if there has been more demand for our services from out-of-county patrons. Also, the materials that leave the center for reuse by the public or for KAB projects do not qualify for recycling totals.
We’ve handled three million pounds since I joined the KAB crew in 2019. Whether you have been saving newspapers and pop cans for decades or may be on the fence about committing to sorting recycling from the household rubbish, come on down to 107 ½ Cheyenne Ave. anytime 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and see where it all goes.