Recycling demand rising in Aurora
■ Citizens request more services from Central Waste firm
by Jonna M. Huseman
Give a hoot! Don’t pollute!
Reduce, reuse, recycle!
Although the old recycling mantras from the 80s and 90s aren’t the household phrases they used to be, many in Aurora still stand by their message -- so much so that Central Waste out of Grand Island has increased its recycling services in town.
The request to do so was made not by the company, but by concerned citizens in Aurora who wanted to see their plastics put to good use instead of being dumped in a landfill.
Beginning Jan. 1, Central Waste began picking up recyclable No. 1 and No. 2 plastics at bins located near the Hamilton County Ambulance Department and in front of residential homes.
“We received phone calls from residents saying ‘we’d like to see you take plastics as well,’” said Paul Ostheimer, district manager for Central Waste, who added the company has had good feedback since the plastic service was added.
Not only does Central Waste now pick up items like empty milk jugs, old cleaning product containers and empty pop bottles, but the company also takes pesky plastic bags.
“We are taking them because it seems like a lot of people put their recyclables in the plastic bags,” Ostheimer said. “We found if you get overly nit-picky, it becomes a headache. We try to keep it as easy as possible.”
Central Waste is joining a growing number of people and organizations that are looking for an alternative to throwing the flimsy plastic in landfills.
Already, cities like San Francisco and Boston have banned the bags, citing the fact that they use up landfill space and are harmful to the environment.
The giant supermarket chain Whole Foods is currently looking into banning plastic bags from its stores all together, giving customers a choice between recycled paper bags or reusable canvas bags.
As for banning plastic bags in Aurora, city administrator Mike Bair said the practice is conceivable, but likely won’t happen for years, if ever at all.
Aside from taking plastics, Central Waste also picks up newspapers, magazines, cardboard, tin and aluminum cans.
The company collects the materials from public bins every other week and transports them back to Grand Island where they are put through the recycling process and turned back into usable items.
More often that not, Ostheimer said the items that get recycled––like milk cartons or aluminum cans––are broken down and turned back into the exact same thing.
The Grand Island-based company isn’t the only group to offer recycling services to Aurora, however.
The Aurora Lions Club has been recycling paper, magazines, telephone books, cardboard and aluminum for the past 10 years using revenue from the project to help those with poor eye sight receive prescription glasses.
Like Central Waste, the Lions Club has seen a steady increase in the amount of recycling done by Aurora’s residents over the past few years.
In 2007, the Aurora Lions Club collected more than 250,000 pounds of recyclable materials, which they traded for $4,499.94.
“What’s most impressive about it is 100 percent of it comes back to the community,” said Aurora’s mayor Marlin Seeman.
Harley Fassnacht heads the recycling program and said each month, members of the Lions Club put in nearly 90 hours of volunteer work, collecting items and taking them to Henderson, where they are then put through the recycling process.
“We do it mostly to get the money for things we do and to keep items out of landfills,” Fassnacht said. “I like to do it.”
The first Saturday of each month, Fassnacht and other Lions Club members meet near the fire barn with a large trailer where they collect items from Aurora’s residents for recycling.
The club also has what Fassnacht refers to as “Lion cages” around town for the collection of plastic pop and water bottles. The cages can be found at Dollar General, Aurora Mall and Casey’s.
Volunteers from the club also drive around town to collect shredded paper and newspapers from local businesses including the hospital, the post office and the library.
All materials collected by the Lion’s Club are taken to Henderson, where they are handed over to Burton Enterprises, a company that ships recyclable materials to factories and mills throughout Nebraska and the United States.
Plastics collected by the Aurora Lions Club are shipped to Sandhills Plastic where they are ground down and used to make plastic lumber.
Newspaper and newsprint is shipped to companies in Fremont or Norfolk and used to make insulation for modular homes. Cardboard is shipped out of the state and is used to make the grey backing on drywall.
Aluminum and tin are both taken to Grand Island where the metals are melted down and made into new cans and new steel.
And shredded paper collected by the Lions Club is shipped out to paper mills on the Great Lakes where it is used to make other paper.
According to Larry Burton, owner of Burton Enterprises, all recyclable materials have significant value when it comes to the creation of new products. Even phone books, which have little monetary value once they are used, can be turned into something useful.
“(Recycling) does a great deal in the way of relieving the pressure on virgin materials in the way of producing a product,” Burton said. “We have a garbage business besides our recycling business and I see every day the hundreds of tons of garbage people throw away. It’s a terrible waste.”
For those who wish to recycle on a more leisurely basis, set up inside of the Hamilton County Courthouse and at the Pump n’ Pantry gas stations are bins used by the Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity to collect aluminum cans.
In 2007, the group collected 3,800 pounds of aluminum cans from Aurora alone.
The Habitat for Humanity affiliate uses proceeds from the items they collect to help with construction costs and according to a spokeswoman for the group, proceeds from cans collected in Aurora were put towards a home the organization built in Aurora in 2006.
Seeman said he is encouraged to see so many people in Aurora actively caring about the town and the environment.
“Both entities are collecting more recyclables and therefore, as we all know, the individual responsibility for recycling appears to be on the increase,” Seeman said, calling recycling “the right thing to do.”
Anyone wishing to have curb-side recycling is asked to contact city offices or Central Waste. The service is free of charge and all curb-side recyclable materials are picked up by Central Waste on Fridays.