KANSAS
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT
BILL GRAVES, GOVERNOR
Gary R. Mitchell, Secretary
For Immediate Release
Contact: Mike Heideman, 785-296-1529
Solid Waste in Leavenworth County: From Dark Ages to New Millennium in 4 Years
LEAVENWORTH -- Close your eyes. Can you picture what's in your trash?Chances are, lots of it isn't trash at all.
Just ask Debbie McRill, solid waste management coordinator for Leavenworth County, also lovingly dubbed "the Trash Queen" by those who've watched the growth and development of Leavenworth's solid waste plan.
Last year Leavenworth County's solid waste management program recovered 464 tons of what lots of people still think of as trash. And the transfer station from which the material recovery program operates hadn't even been built.
"Before the building opened we advertised that we'd accept no trash, but would collect items for recycling," McRill said. "People would show up and say, 'Oh, you don't take trash?' and we'd say, 'Let's see what you've got.'
"We'd find old fence posts (fodder for the chipper to create mulch) a few sheets of bent up aluminum siding and some cardboard (both recyclable), maybe a couple of tires (also accepted). There'd actually be a very small amount of true garbage."
It wasn't all that surprising that Leavenworth County residents couldn't differentiate between waste and recoverable items. McRill remembers well when Leavenworth County residents had few options for either.
"Leavenworth County has gone, in just four years, from the dark ages to . . . well, really to the '90s -- where we should be -- with a solid waste program," McRill said.
"Four years ago when you said 'solid waste' people thought you meant what goes into the sewers," McRill said.
McRill was among a small group who ran volunteer recycling programs in Leavenworth and Lansing before a passion for the cause led to a paying job. In 1994, the City of Leavenworth was contracting for waste disposal services, but county residents were on their own.
"There was a lot of illegal dumping, including some really nasty, sad sites," she said. "A few of the more conscientious people were burning their trash, but there was a lot of polluting going on."
Because of her involvement as a volunteer, McRill was invited to become a member of the county's solid waste management committee, charged with the awesome task of creating a plan to deal with the waste streams in this county of 65,000.
The Leavenworth County plan was the first approved in Kansas in 1995. It grew out of about eight months of study and planning.
During that time, as McRill and others toured landfills and considered options, it became increasingly apparent the county could not afford a landfill, let alone withstand the battles over siting one.
Neither was there much enthusiasm for roll-off containers -- unmanned and scattered at various points -- allowing people to drop off recyclables with nothing but their conscience to police them.
The resulting plan called for a transfer station, with the intent to recover and divert much of what is brought in as trash, funded by a $6.75 per year assessment to each residential property in the county. The transfer station has operated from its beginning on that $145,000 a year.
At about the same time the transfer station's plan was approved, the City of Leavenworth opened a manned recycling center. Enthusiasm for recycling gained momentum. That year, 600 tons of white goods and metal also were collected at the transfer station property.
Perhaps one of the greatest plugs came when McRill and other interested individuals led a tire clean-up over a two-month period. They rounded-up 20,000 tires that otherwise would have been in a landfill or dumped.
"It was the single-most important thing we did, because people looked at it and could see it wasn't something we were doing just to create a program," McRill said. "If I'm out there being cold, being filthy, throwing those tires, I believe in it and people could see that."
Thanks to Kansas Department of Health and Environment Implementation Grants, compactors, trailers, containers and a truck enable the transfer station to handle recyclables on site and to travel through Leavenworth, Lansing, Basehor and Tonganoxie collecting more.
The transfer station's 24-acre site at 13523 Gilman Road has become a one-stop shop for most every disposal need. It handles cardboard, metal, white goods, tires, oil, household hazardous waste, grass clippings, leaves and brush.
"A lot of our participants aren't the characteristic recyclers," McRill said. "It used to be a lot of older people who'd done this sort of thing during wars or the Depression and some of the more progressive adults. Now we have young adults, farmers. It's been a really good thing."
The "do-it-yourself" attitude extends to what happens to the recyclables. Metal is sold and other recyclables are taken to nearby Ft. Leavenworth as a public service. The crew uses few contractors, having one of the staff certified to oversee ridding appliances of toxic CFC's and bulking paint.
It may be an outgrowth of the attitude of residents in the area.
"The really neat thing is that the people who bring stuff in are just so happy to be doing something besides leaving it in bags by their curbs. The whole thing is pretty amazing, and it's not that hard."