Sheldon, Iowa — There is a large community recyclables container available on the south side of the Sheldon Community Services Center Parking lot. That’s apparently not a newsflash, based upon the amount of materials that are placed inside, as well as outside the container every day and that’s becoming a problem.
Sheldon City Manager Sam Kooiker says the container has been there for use by Sheldon residents for more than ten years and was originally dumped just once each week.
(As above) “When I came to town it was being emptied approximately once a week and I upped it to two times a week. Now we’re getting to the point that with cardboard recycling essentially gone away, it used to be picked up by a local organization, so now the container is full almost all the time, especially with COVID having caused an increase in shipping and online shopping.”
He says the City is running into problems due to the cardboard boxes that are being placed inside the container without being broken down.
(As above) “The boxes aren’t being broken down and it would be really helpful if people would break down the boxes….they’re being set on the ground. We’re just trying to work through this, work through the situation. We’ve also increased the amount of recycling pickup in town, it’s now every other week. But the change in schedule has been confusing to people, so it’s easy just to bring it down to City Hall. I’m hopeful that we can work through it.”
Kooiker says that one thing that would help alleviate the problem would be having residential recyclables picked up weekly, rather than the current every other week schedule.
(As above) “I would like it to be weekly, I think it’s time. And we’ll have that opportunity when we negotiate the new hauler contract later this year.”
He says the current problem is one of available space in the downtown container. Boxes that aren’t broken down take up a lot more space in the container than boxes that are, so Kooiker is making a plea to people to please break down their cardboard boxes before putting them into the downtown container.
(As above) “We’re running into a real issue with them not being broken down because they’re filling up in a day. We had it emptied on New Year’s Eve, in the afternoon and by New Year’s Day morning it was so full that there were boxes all over the ground.”
Another possible solution to the problem with the downtown container would be to simply remove it.
(As above) “I would rather not, because it’s a good community service. I would like to find a way to increase the amount of residential recycling, encourage people to break down their boxes before they use the downtown container and please not put cardboard on the ground. And I think we need to work on all three of those avenues before we explore taking the container away.”
Kooiker says if you aren’t sure about when your residential recyclables are picked up, there is a schedule posted on the City’s website showing the schedules for each of the City’s haulers. You can find that schedule by CLICKING HERE.
Photo: Sheldon’s downtown recycling container early Monday morning, January 11, 2021.
