At Columbia’s landfill, ribbons of blue recycling bags are scattered across a mound of trash that also includes old furniture, fast-food containers and other rubbish.
After a tornado destroyed the city’s Material Recovery Facility at the landfill April 20, recycling pickup was suspended for a week.
As of April 28, city workers have continued to collect the blue bags of recyclables from residents’ curbsides. But instead of going to the facility to be processed and resold, those recyclables are being added to a pile with the rest of the refuse.
City officials said storing recyclables until a solution is reached would not be practical because as materials are exposed to the elements, they become weathered and less valuable for sale.
The Missourian visited the landfill on Friday to observe the disposal of recycled goods.
How much recycling material is there?
Last year, about 11,000 tons of recycling was picked up, but only about 60% of it was recyclable. About 4,500 tons was contaminated and put into the landfill, said Jason West, a spokesperson for Columbia Utilities.
For example, contamination could be cardboard that absorbed pizza grease, mixed containers in a bag with broken glass or any recycling tainted with trash.
Adam White, the landfill superintendent, said sometimes “seasonal” trash contaminates a bag of recycling. “Fish guts” was the example he gave.
The MRF processed the remaining 6,500 tons of recyclables, almost 25 tons per day.
“One note in this overall number is that this total is not just Columbia residents but also includes private companies within the county and area, too,” West said in an email.
While the recycling center serves Columbia, the landfill serves five surrounding counties and private residents or contractors who wish to dump their waste at $55 per ton, White said.
White said even though there will be more trash, it’s not all going to waste.
“Even though it’s not being recycled in its traditional sense, we’re still finding some benefit,” White said.
White said the landfill has 65 methane gas extraction wells that use the gas released by decomposing trash to fuel a pump that generates electricity.
The future
It is not yet clear when the blue bags will go to their rightful home. Right now, what’s happening is the ongoing insurance assessment, West said — finding out what’s salvageable and what’s sellable from the rubble of the recycling facility.
Inspections, such as an asbestos check, also need to be done, White said. The city uses a contractor who is responsible for clearing dirt and moving earth. Contracts are augmented to include specific tools used to clear big building materials, like a shear to cut through the metal of the remains.
The 23-year-old facility was already at the end of its useful life, the Columbia City Council confirmed in a work session last January. RRT Design & Construction conducted an analysis and provided multiple options to the city in November 2023, three of which are possible in the wake of the tornado.
“What the tornado did was mostly elevate those discussions and make them happen a lot more quickly,” West said.
The options, priced before the tornado, are based on building a new facility while continuing operations, not on rebuilding an old one and clearing its debris, West said. These include:
- Rebuild on the existing site: $22 million.
- This would require finding a temporary alternative solution to process recyclables, clearing the rubble of the existing building and building a new one.
- Replace an existing building with a new recycling facility: $26.2 million.
- This would entail tearing down the Landfill Operation Center on the landfill site, building the recycling facility in its place and rebuilding the LOC elsewhere onsite. That option would allow existing infrastructure, including sewer lines, electrical wiring and a foundation, to be built on. “The amount of sophistication with a building like that compared with an MRF — there’s a big difference there,” West said. The operation center serves as a “glorified maintenance garage” where garbage trucks and other Solid Waste vehicles are worked on, he said.
- Build a new recycling facility from scratch: $26.7 million.
- The new building would go up on a gravel lot across from the administration building on landfill property. The primary step to prepare that space would be to relocate industrial-size and commercial-size metal trash bins, like ones used for restaurants or apartment complexes. The half-million-dollar higher price tag is because a foundation and all other building infrastructure would need to be accounted for instead of building on the existing facilities of the LOC.
“Given we may not be able to use existing material ... there’s going to be an added cost now,” West said.
In the meantime, West and White encouraged residents to continue to separate their recycling from their true trash.
The first week the city resumed collection of recycling bags at residents’ curbs, the trucks brought less recycling to the landfill than in previous weeks, West said. That could mean people are not recycling or separating their recycling as much, he added.
“They want to keep the consumer in the habit because the city’s dedicated to recycling and wants to get back to it,” White said.
Before a new site is built, there could be another way to divert the recycling, such as using another contractor or collector.
“Maybe we can’t provide it to you in the same form as we did before, but we’re looking for other people that might take it,” White said.
