With landfill closing, Monroe County sets goal for more recycling

Employees at the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District said recycling has become a critical goal of the district, especially with the closure of the Monroe County Landfill.

The mission of the Monroe County Solid Waste District is “to reduce waste and divert materials from the landfill,” said Elisa Pokral, media and education director for the district.

Currently, Pokral said about 50 percent of Monroe County residents recycle, while the national average is 33.4 percent, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2007 figures.

She said residents must be conscious of what they dispose of and how, because improper disposal of waste pollutes drinking water and lowers air quality.

“Landfills still leak,” she said, contributing to “trace elements of things in our water, and we don’t know what the effects will be.”

Last year Americans generated 254 million tons of waste, and they recycled and composted 85 million tons of that waste, according to EPA statistics. The EPA estimates the 85 million tons of waste diverted from landfills is equivalent to the reduction of 193 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is comparable to annual emissions from more than 35 million cars.

Paper and cardboard are the most recycled materials in the United States, with about 54.5 percent recycled in 2007, but paper and cardboard products make up about 35 percent of waste in municipal landfills, according to the EPA.

Pokral said recycling reduces waste by 60 to 75 percent and composting can reduce waste by 20 percent.

“We want people to recycle every day – to become a habit,” Pokral said. “It is another thing to sort, but it can save them money.”

Mike Lamoureaux of Bloomington said he makes recycling part of his Saturday routine.

“It’s the environmentally sound thing to do,” he said. “It takes me 15 minutes of my time.”

While the city of Bloomington provides free recycling curbside pickup, apartments are not included. For those residents and Monroe County residents outside of Bloomington, the district offers five drop-off centers around the county.

Also, at the Central Station on South Walnut Street, residents can dispose of Freon appliances, paint, gasoline, batteries, fertilizers, cleaners, pesticides, herbicides, oil, antifreeze, pool chemicals, medications and fluorescent lamps, which have a different method of disposal.

Those materials are either sent to separate landfills categorized for hazardous disposal or they are incinerated. For example, batteries dropped off at the Central Station in Bloomington are taken to a firm in Wisconsin where harmful mercury is removed.  Motor oil is refined. Anti-freeze is sent to a firm in Greenwood, Ind., where it is then prepared for reuse.

Once the non-hazardous recyclables, such as glass, aluminum and paper, are collected at one of the five collection stations, they are then sent to a transfer station owned by Hoosier Disposal & Recycling, a subsidiary of Republic Services, Inc. Waste is also sent through the Hoosier transfer station, where it is then sent to the Sycamore Ridge Landfill in Terre Haute.

Ron Howard, sales manager for Hoosier Disposal & Recycling, said he has seen an increase in recycling with the help of advertising efforts.

“We own the landfill,” he said. “Being landfill owners, we know we need to treat this differently.”

At the transfer station off of State Road 37 south of Bloomington, materials are baled into large blocks of about 16,000 pounds to a ton. Buyers from as far as Cincinnati, Chicago and Louisville, Ky., convert the materials into recycled paper or other products.

“We can’t just be digging holes and filling them up,” Howard said.