|
|
|
Recycling has never been as easy as it should be in the area, although the partnership between Deffenbaugh Industries and the Independence School District seems to have been a great step forward.
That program has put recycling bins at each school, and they are often full or close to it. That’s an improvement because the city’s two drop-off sites – although well run and well used – have limited hours. The bins at the schools are there all the time, and they require less sorting of recyclables.
Still, residents have to bag or box the stuff, load it into the car and then drive to the site. That’s why the area badly trails other cities – those with curbside recycling – in overall recycling rates. Less recycling means more stuff in expensive landfill space.
And for some time the community has faced this mystery: what to do with glass? The city sites stopped taking it some time ago, and the school bins won’t take it, so only hard-core recyclers could get rid of it. The nearest site to Blue Springs and Independence that would take glass is the Bridging the Gap facility east of the former Bannister Mall.
But change is coming. A new company, Ripple Glass, plans to put dozens of bins around the area to collect glass that will be sent to a plant on the east side of Kansas City, where it will be crushed and sold for products such as Fiberglas.
The company plans to put its bins, starting next month, at the two city sites in Independence as well as in Grain Valley and Sugar Creek. Blue Springs officials say they’re open to the idea.
Backers of the idea say about 28 percent of glass is recycled nationwide but Kansas City comes in at a puny 5 percent. That needs to change, and this is a market-based solution to the problem. It’s a needed step.
Recycling has never been as easy as it should be in the area, although the partnership between Deffenbaugh Industries and the Independence School District seems to have been a great step forward.
That program has put recycling bins at each school, and they are often full or close to it. That’s an improvement because the city’s two drop-off sites – although well run and well used – have limited hours. The bins at the schools are there all the time, and they require less sorting of recyclables.
Still, residents have to bag or box the stuff, load it into the car and then drive to the site. That’s why the area badly trails other cities – those with curbside recycling – in overall recycling rates. Less recycling means more stuff in expensive landfill space.
And for some time the community has faced this mystery: what to do with glass? The city sites stopped taking it some time ago, and the school bins won’t take it, so only hard-core recyclers could get rid of it. The nearest site to Blue Springs and Independence that would take glass is the Bridging the Gap facility east of the former Bannister Mall.
But change is coming. A new company, Ripple Glass, plans to put dozens of bins around the area to collect glass that will be sent to a plant on the east side of Kansas City, where it will be crushed and sold for products such as Fiberglas.
The company plans to put its bins, starting next month, at the two city sites in Independence as well as in Grain Valley and Sugar Creek. Blue Springs officials say they’re open to the idea.
Backers of the idea say about 28 percent of glass is recycled nationwide but Kansas City comes in at a puny 5 percent. That needs to change, and this is a market-based solution to the problem. It’s a needed step.
