COLUMBIA — One year after a tornado destroyed Columbia’s recycling facility, the city is entering a critical phase in its recovery: deciding who will rebuild the facility while maintaining a limited operation that officials say is becoming cleaner, steadier and more workable for the long term.
The city has opened its bidding process for a new Material Recovery Facility, with submissions due May 12. Columbia Utilities spokesperson Jason West said the decision will depend on more than cost.
"It’s not just going to be whoever’s the cheapest," West said. "... Reputation of the company, whether they’ve worked with the city in the past, and their ability to pull off a project like this."
After an EF1 tornado destroyed the city’s recycling sorting facility on April 20, 2025, Columbia lost the ability to process recyclables in-house. Since then, officials have rebuilt parts of the system through a partnership with a recycling operation in Jefferson City, which now helps sort and move material to a processing center in Illinois.
West said that arrangement is working well.
“We’re averaging about a truck a day taking material down there … it’s been a very smooth transition and a very good working relationship right now,” West said.
That partnership has allowed the city to resume diverting some recyclable material from the landfill. But without its own sorting space, Columbia is still operating in a reduced capacity, and residents now have to do more sorting themselves before items ever reach the curb.
“Unfortunately, with the tornado taking out the facility, we don’t have that sorting space and that sorting capability, and so that sorting needs to happen at home now, rather than at our facility,” West said.
West also said that change has produced one surprising result: cleaner recycling.
Before the tornado, the city saw contamination rates around 36% in collected material. Now, that number is in the single digits. West said the city is collecting less overall because it no longer has drop-off centers or apartment collection options, but what it does receive is more usable.
City sustainability specialist Tyler Gerstheimer said the city’s recovery has also created an opportunity to improve the system rather than simply recreating what was lost.
“It also gave us a great opportunity to rethink our program,” Gerstheimer said. “And so as we build this program back, I think we can build it better.”
For now, some limitations remain. West said glass is still the city’s biggest contamination problem because Columbia does not currently have a market for it. Gerstheimer also said residents cannot recycle plastics No. 3-7 through the current program.
That makes public participation especially important as the city tries to keep the temporary system effective while planning for a permanent rebuild.
“If people are putting the correct materials in, the organization that we work with takes those materials and recycles them,” Gerstheimer said.
West said once bids are submitted the city will need time to evaluate proposals, and if multiple bids are received, the project will likely also require the Columbia City Council's approval before construction can begin.
So while Columbia recycling is no longer at a standstill, it is still working to get back to back to the fully restored operation residents once knew.
“I’d say we’re still operating in a limited capacity,” West said. “But certainly getting better.”
For now, officials say the system is holding, and the next major test will come after May 12, when the city begins choosing who will rebuild the foundation of Columbia’s recycling future.
