Recycling comes to Moorcroft

Monday night, the Moorcroft Town Council heard from solid waste pick-up contractor Dave Naughton, owner of Western Waste Solutions. Naughton sought permission to initiate a plan offering individual households the opportunity to participate in a recycling program within town limits for a minimal monthly cost.

The items that can be recycled, according to Naughton, are aluminum and tin cans, plastics (jugs and bottles), glass and corrugated cardboard including cereal boxes, beer flats and wraps, etc.

No paper is allowed; however, can or bottle labels can be recycled.

The enterprise would be subscription based, meaning that interested parties must call to sign up. The scheduled service would be every Friday and the householder must purchase and use blue or clear plastic garbage bags, ensuring visual confirmation of contents, and flatten cardboard beneath the bag.

If the pickup crew discerns too much contamination within the bag, it will be put in with the regular garbage and a sticker will be affixed to a field flag explaining the situation to the householder.

Because, said Naughton, this would be a subscription between Western Waste and the individual, any questions or issues would not pass to the town, but directly to the contractor and that number would be provided to the householder at the onset as well as on any stickers over the lifetime of said agreement.

After the contractor finished his presentation, Councilman Owen Mathews discussed with his fellows his concern about the wording of the ordinance not allowing private contracts with a pickup contractor beyond the town. However, Councilman Ben Glenn and Clerk Cheryl Schneider examined said municipal law and the wording does, in fact, allow the town’s “Agent”, which in this case would be Western Waste, to offer this program with the council’s permission.

Naughton explained to the governing body that this help the town with both the issues of space in the landfill and methane that is a byproduct of decomposing cardboard.

This consideration, though, brought another point to the fore.

“On one hand,” Mathews opined, “yes, it’s a good thing, on the other hand, we’re trying to get a waste stream coming in to justify expanding that into [a] regional so we don’t have to ship somewhere else. We have to have a waste stream coming in that shows that it [the landfill] can support itself.”

Mayor Dick Claar responded that, while he understood the dilemma, he felt the point of any solid waste assemblage was moot due to other issues, adding that any advancement of a formal district, “It would be at least three years before we can do it, I believe. I just think [recycling] can save our landfill.”

Naughton concurred with Mathews’ perspective, but shared his conviction to this program, “I think one of the important things is that cardboard… is one of the major contributors to [the production of] methane. I would overlook the weight of it and look at what it does to our landfill; that’s an extremely expensive item.” He later shared a little known fact about cardboard waste, “When you see a logging truck with logs on the trailer, both the logs and the trailer equal two bales of cardboard.”

Glenn voiced his favor of the program, “Let’s see what happens with it.”

The governing body allowed this endeavor as long as there is no cost to the town. There will be a note on the residential water bills this month and on the website. The schedule starts on February 14.

Naughton later voiced again his advocacy of recycling, “Recycling is the rebirth of our natural resources.”