Dallas County will end its current recycling program July 1, when Waste Management , the county’s contract hauler, removes its recycling roll-offs in Linden, Perry, Redfield, Woodward and in Washington Township.
Ted Trewin, Dallas County Environmental Health Director, said the county is actively seeking new recycling arrangements for rural residents, but these will not be in place before the county’s contract with Waste Management ends June 30.
When Waste Management proposed increasing its recycling rates in the new contract, the Dallas County Board of Supervisors was spurred to seek a new service provider.
“Waste Management was thinking that they were basically putting too much of their own money toward our recycling program, and so they upped the price of the program,” Trewin said, but “the board of supervisors didn’t want to amend the contract.”
Trewin said Waste Management currently charges the county about $264 each time it empties one of the five rural recycling roll-offs, and the Houston, Texas-based company proposed raising the rate to about $352 per visit. Some of the county’s sites are emptied as often as once a week.
Waste Management also charges a fee of $65 a ton to dispose of the county’s recycling and an additional fee if a load is contaminated with garbage and has to go to be dumped at the landfill, Trewin said. He said he is working with Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines to explore options for rural recycling.
Two recycling sites will be available to rural residents in Dallas County beginning July 1:
- Metro Park West Landfill, 2466 337th St. in rural Perry
- Metro Northwest Transfer Station at 4105 S.E. Beisser Dr. in Grimes
The Dallas County Rural Resident Recycling Program website will continue to provide updates on county recycling.
