Ashland's recycling lot is now open again after closing down for a week due to excess materials.
The facility has a new schedule and will be open on weekdays while being closed on weekends.
"We're not gonna leave it open on the weekends, a lot of the abuse that we're seeing is coming through on the weekends," said Kyle Michel, Ashland's city administrator.
The city of Ashland's posted to Facebook last week reporting "ongoing misuse" as the reason for the temporary closure of the recycling lot. The city said that it needed time to "sort and dispose of excess materials."
Michel said it's not just Ashland residents contributing to the excess recycling.
"Boone County has had a dumpster here in Ashland, and they've had one in Hartsburg, so not only are we seeing excess come from rural county residents, but also city of Columbia residents that are bringing recycle materials to Ashland," Michel said.
The city of Columbia stopped recycling operations after the city's recycling facility was destroyed in a tornado on Easter Sunday.
Jason West, the communications and outreach supervisor for the city of Columbia, said many Columbia residents are concerned with the state of the city's recycling program.
"When the city is not able to collect those to the customer's satisfaction, the customers can always take their materials to a more appropriate place if they feel so," West said.
Michel said the city has been feeling the pressure of non-residents using the Ashland recycling lot.
"Particularly on that Monday morning, we're seeing a lot of trash that's very clearly folks that don't live in town," Michel said. "So if we can discourage them from coming down here on the weekends and using our facility, that's kind of the goal."
Some Ashland residents agree that the closure has been an inconvenience.
"I'm finally getting rid of these recycles after being closed for a week," Butch Moore, an Ashland resident, said. "I come every week so it built up pretty quick at the house, so I'm glad it was open today so I can get rid of it."
The city of Ashland said it's working on possible solutions to fix this issue.
"We have cameras down there right now, we're looking to upgrade those cameras just to make sure that we're able to, if we want to, write littering tickets or illicit use tickets that we can prosecute those tickets," Michel said. "And right now, we're just not in a position where we can successfully prosecute those tickets."
Some public comments under the city's Facebook post mentioned introducing curbside pickup.
"I wouldn't say curbside is out of the question but that does come at a enhanced fee to the residents, so it will ultimately be up to whether or not the residents wanna go that direction," Michel said. "We have kind of a split population, some like the recycling program, some could go without it."
The single bin at the recycling center is emptied 3 times a week on Monday morning, Wednesday morning and Friday morning.
The city of Columbia said it's hoping to find solutions for their own recycling situation.
"I do believe that we will be able to have another center built, it may take a couple years in order to do that," West said. "But we're still continuing to look at other options to divert those recyclable materials from the landfill."
Demolition of Columbia's destroyed Material Recovery facility began earlier this month. According to the city, demolition is expected to be completed by the end of June.
