Columbia Utilities is continuing to expand its recycling services as residents navigate how to sort their trash.
The city is recovering from an April 2025 tornado that destroyed Columbia’s local recycling sorting plant. As a result, instructions for residents about recycling are often shifting.
The latest update, announced Friday, is a partnership between Columbia Utilities and Ripple Glass. Residents can now drop off glass for recycling at no cost in a new Ripple bin at the Columbia landfill on Peabody Road.
For other recyclables, residents are asked to bundle fiber materials, including cardboard, newspaper and office paper, and leave them at the curb. Mixed containers can be placed in blue recycling bags, which can be picked up at City Hall using free vouchers provided by the city twice a year.
What goes in the blue bags continues to cause confusion. Before the tornado, all recyclables could go into the blue bags and were separated at the local sorting facility.
Now, residents are asked to separate their own recyclables. Only No. 1 and 2 plastics can go in the blue bags, which generally includes most plastic bottles and containers. Aluminum cans and metal food cans can also go in blue bags.
If residents put contaminants in blue bags, collection crews may leave the bags at the curb for residents to sort through, or the bags may be sent to the landfill.
Collected blue bags are taken to a facility in Jefferson City, where their contents are combined with other recyclable materials before being transported to a processing facility in Illinois. That facility determines the percentage of contaminants in the load, and that percentage is deducted from the amount paid to Columbia for the recyclables.
Jason West, communications and outreach supervisor for Columbia Utilities, encourages residents to pay attention to what they put in the blue bags.
“The biggest consequence, if you want to say, is that it becomes trash,” West said. “If it’s not noticed at the curb when we pick it up and then it gets to the facility in Illinois, it would take away from any revenue that the city would get back.”
West said that residents are getting better at following the city’s guidelines.
A city recycling drop-off event will be held Saturday at the Grissum Building at 1313 Lakeview Ave. Residents can bring recycling materials if they missed their collection day or if they have accumulated a large amount.
Residents are asked to sort the materials themselves before taking them to the drop-off location. Blue bags, mixed fibers and glass will be accepted from 8 a.m. to noon.
