Shame on us: Johnson County lags nation in recycling

Johnson County, which prides itself on being one of the most influential, progressive and cutting-edge counties in the nation, is shamefully trailing the rest of the country in its recycling efforts.

Based on 2005 data from Franklin Associates, Prairie Village, which specializes in solid waste management systems and services, and a report by Burns & McDonnell, Kansas City, Mo., released last March for the Mid-America Regional Council's Solid Waste Management District, the national average recycling rate is 34 percent.

Johnson County's rate is 23 percent.

The county's commercial recycling rate is 30 percent, but the residential rate is a lowly 15 percent.

"I think it was a surprise not only to us but also to public officials when we sorted out the numbers and it turned out that we lagged so far behind (the rest of the country)," Cindy Kemp, Johnson County Environmental Department director, said. "I think it's a little bit of an embarrassment, frankly, and this is a position that most people don't want to see their community in."

The data came from a variety of sources including disposal rates at landfills and the Olathe transfer station. Kemp said an updated report by Franklin Associates is due for release later this year but that the 2005 data triggered a new 20-year solid waste management plan for the county that commissioners approved last December with one goal in mind: to get the county to a 42 percent recycling rate as quickly as possible.

The plan involves a four-step strategy. Those steps are: education; expanding the availability of curbside recycling to everyone in the county; restricting the disposal of yard waste in the landfill and diverting it to composting; and moving the county, including all the communities, to a pay-as-you-throw system so that trash rates are based on what is thrown away.

The county also wants to work with the business community to get commercial recycling rates up an additional 35 percent.

Yard waste comprises 11 percent of the waste going into the Deffenbaugh Landfill, one of the 10 largest landfills in the country. The site handles an average of 6,000 tons of waste a day. It is scheduled to close in 2027 and possibly earlier if the waste stream is not reduced.

Kemp said going to a pay-as-you-throw system is an effective way to guide people toward recycling.

"That means the guy down the street who puts out 10 bags (of trash) would pay more than the person who puts out just two bags," Kemp said. "This is a strategy that has been used in literally thousands of communities across the country, and it does drive up the recycling rates.

"The city of Mission started (that system) as of Jan. 1, 2009, and Kansas City, Mo., has been doing this for a few years."

Last October, the Overland Park City Council approved a mandate that every household in the city pay a $3 monthly recycling fee. A month later, the City Council rescinded that ordinance because of citizen protests.

Three Johnson County cities mandate a recycling fee: Lenexa, Roeland Park and Spring Hill. Deffenbaugh statistics show that recycling in Lenexa is nearly 25 percent more than in other Johnson County communities it serves.

Olathe, which operates its own trash service and transfer station, is considering a mandatory trash and recycling fee of $18.50 that would go into effect in 2010.

Kemp said there is no timetable to implement any of the county's strategies but added that she thinks the yard waste restrictions and the curbside recycling could begin soon.

"The pay-as-you-throw (strategy) we may need a little longer to move toward, but we're getting strong support from the cities," she said. "When we take this message out to the public, we get some pushback, but really, the questions we get are more related to logistics and implementation and not so much about whether this is the right thing to do.

"So our sense is our community is really ready for this now. But educating the public is key - it's huge."

Education is so important to the county that commissioners approved hiring two full-time environmental department staff members at the first of the year to meet with the public and explain the county's solid waste plan and why implementation is so important.

Mike Clagett, general manager of Deffenbaugh Industries Inc.'s recycling division, is a member of the Solid Waste Management Committee that helped draft Johnson County's Solid Waste Plan. He said as the county begins to implement its plan, participation in recycling programs will increase.

That will extend the life expectancy of the landfill.

"Obviously any materials you divert from the landfill help in regard to expanding the life of the landfill," he said. "I don't want to be an alarmist, but landfill space by its very nature is designed to be diminished."

 Johnson County Chair Annabeth Surbaugh said Johnson County needs to improve its recycling participation or the landfill will close by 2015. She said she would like to see the cities and county all on the same type of solid waste plan.

"We're way behind on recycling," she said. "If we put our plan into effect and it does what it should do, we would be at a 42 percent recycling rate and that would be ahead of the national average, and Johnson County normally is ahead of everybody else. The plan we developed would create a pay-as-you-throw system.

"If you're paying for (recycling) anyway and if you're going to have to pay as you throw, I think recycling will be majorly improved. Right now we have cities doing their thing, Deffenbaugh doing its thing, and the county doing its thing, but the county is the one charged with the responsibility of managing solid waste; it's our statutory responsibility.

"We don't care if it's a county edict, we just want everybody doing the same thing."

Getting to that point likely will be a slow process, Surbaugh said.

"The plan has been approved, but implementing it is our challenge," she said. "I've met with the mayors twice on this, they know this is a real issue. The trouble is getting the public to understand this is important and that after 2027 anything they do with their trash is going to cost a lot, lot more."

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment