The Dallas County Supervisors recently ordered the removal of a recycling bin after six months at its Waukee location next to the county shed at 205 Ashworth Road because people were chronically misusing the service.
The bin was formerly located on county property in Ortonville but was moved to Waukee last winter in order to make way for the Dallas County Law Enforcement Center construction project.
Dallas County Environmental Health Director Ted Trewin, who oversees the county’s recycling program, outlined some of the complaints he received about the Waukee container at the July 3 meeting of the supervisors.
“Some of the problems in Waukee,” Trewin said, “are not getting the materials in the container and the habitual inappropriate use of the trash and recycling and, of course, when it’s windy, the material that’s not in the container gets blown around.”
Trewin also said “one person complained of the hours, but there’s no gate or anything like that or hours per se.”
Supervisor Mark Hanson, who lives in Waukee and represents the second supervisor’s district, shared some of the backstory on the county’s southeasternmost recycling containers. He said two bins for recyclables were originally located at the county shed on Ashworth Road, but complaints about litter led to their relocation to the grounds of the Waukee City Hall at 230 Hickman Road.
Litter complaints followed the containers, Hanson said. The wind easily lifted their lightweight lids, allowing refuse to escape. The pair of bins was eventually replaced with a single less-litter-prone container and moved to Ortonville, where it rested until it was brought again to the county property on Ashworth Road last winter when the LEC project began.
Hanson posed several question to Trewin about the county’s recycling program more broadly.
“Are we required to do this, number one?” Hanson said, “and number two, if we are required to do it, it’s for rural residents. It’s not for incorporated areas of a city. Why we ever moved that container back to this location anyway was, in light of the history, a little bit of a problem for me.”
Trewin said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources “requires every city and county to provide for the establishment and operation of a comprehensive solid waste reducation program, but therein they give a lot a latitude. They don’t say exactly what you have to do in that comprehensive reduction plan.”
Trewin said the county currently pays $229.50 to Waste Management Inc. each time the company empties a dumpster at one of the five collection sites where rural residents can drop off their recycling. The sites are found in:
- Woodward at 106 Ninth St. on the north of the Casey’s General Store
- Redfield at 1206 Omaha St.
- Washington Township on the northwest corner of County Road P58 and County Road F31, north of the Washington Township School
- Perry at 14368 J Ave. in the Dallas County Secondary Roads Department parking lot
- Linden at the southeast corner of North and Main streets
Hanson speculated that the problems at the county’s shed on Ashworth Road are probably caused by Waukee residents.
“If we can reduce the amount that’s going to the land fill by having the right container at the right location, fine,” Hanson said, “but the city of Waukee should be doing that for all city residents, and the reality is there’s a bunch of stuff that probably gets dumped at this container that should be a city issue and not an unincorporated county issue.”
Michelle Heater resides in the unincorporated part of Dallas County. She was a regular user of the Ortonville drop off along U.S. Highway 6.
“We moved to rural Dallas County in October 2017,” Heater said. “We were used to having every other week curbside pickup of our recycling. I now have to load the recycling in my car and take it into town to drop it off. It was once less than 10 minutes from our house, and then it was moved into Waukee.”
When the Waukee bin suddenly disappeared, Heater correctly guessed the reason: “irresponsible dumping.” Her own experience at the Ashworth Road site was proof.
“I’ve seen a golf bag with clubs,” she said, “a stroller, a toaster oven. It’s very sad to see people abuse the program. They leave trash, and some put their recycling into plastic grocery sacks, which results in the bag and everything inside it being thrown away.”
The board of supervisors discussed with Trewin some options for a different location for the Waukee container, such as the Human Services Campus, and they asked Trewin to price out other options for collecting recyclables.
With the support of his fellow supervisors, Hanson directed Trewin to take the Waukee container out of service “until we determine if we want to have an additional location and where it would be, but in the meantine, if that site is a problem site, which it has been for quite a while, I’d just discontinue use of that site until such time as we could add a container back.”
Heater said she would adjust to the county’s new arrangements in spite of their inconvenience.
“I’ve recycled since it’s been an option,” she said, “and I won’t stop even though it’s very inconvenient. Just wish that they would provide curbside recycling to the rural residents. They pick up our trash, why not do both?”
An answer to Heater’s question might be forthcoming at a future supervisors meeting because among the requests made of Trewin was Supervisor Kim Chapman’s request that the director of environmental health look into the cost of curbside collection in the unincorporated portions of Dallas County.
Trewin said most people like the idea of recycling, but the state gives very little direction and no incentive in the effort — apart from the bottle bill, which Iowa’s grocery stores nearly succeeded in repealing during the last session of the Iowa Legislature.
“Everybody wants to try to be good stewards and try to get as much they can out of the landfill and reuse as much as they can,” Trewin said.
Undaunted, Heater said she will seek a drop-off point for her recycling farther afield.
“It’s sad how the irresponsibility of a few can ruin it for many,” she said.
[…] sixth collection container, in Waukee west of the five-way stop on Ashworth Road, was recently removed. The container at the Perry site has also been the object of recent […]