Salina, Kansas, keeps its recycling option open

When a privately owned recycling center in Salina, Kansas, closed its doors at the end of 2017, the city’s government began to examine ways to keep recycling available as an option for the 47,000 residents of Salina.

In mid-July, the city’s Public Works Department opened a 5,950-square-foot “drive-through” drop-off center, where residents and Public Works staff members load recyclable materials directly into waiting collection vehicles.

According to Jim Teutsch, the department’s operations manager, the new Salina Drive-thru Recycling Center (SDRC) accepts aluminum and steel beverage and food cans, glass containers, plastic containers (Nos. 1 through 7), cardboard, boxboard, newspapers, magazines and unwanted mail.

Residents are being asked not to include batteries, shredded paper, plastic bags or polystyrene foam in their recyclables.

Once a truck is loaded at the SDRC, “The recyclables are taken to a regional MRF (material recovery facility), where they are sorted, baled and shipped” to consuming facilities, says Teutsch.

“Many citizens have expressed their excitement and gratitude over the new facility,” says Teutsch, who adds that residents have thus far been able to use the service in three minutes or less before getting back to “whatever else they may have planned for the day.”