Columbia residents are eventually going to use roll carts for recycling. It’s not a question of if — it’s just a question of when.
That was the message from the city’s utilities staff, which held an open house-style meeting Tuesday so that residents could learn about how the city intends to rebuild the Material Recycling Facility that was destroyed by a tornado on April 20.
“We’re planning to go to automated roll carts for recycling. Council approved that in this budget that just started Oct. 1,” Utilities Director Erin Keys said Tuesday evening at the meeting, which was held at the city’s Activity and Recreation Center.
Since the EF1 Tornado last April, Columbia has opted to sell limited recyclables to a Jefferson City company in the interim.
Keys also discussed the city’s immediate goals to construct a temporary facility for recycling at the open house.
“The first step is thankfully the tornado didn’t destroy all of the equipment that was inside,” Keys said. “So we’re trying to get that equipment back up and running, and then to be able to operate that equipment, we need it under cover.”
Key’s estimated that a temporary rooftop to cover the current equipment would take 12 to 18 months to construct, contingent on the city council’s approval of the project.
Keys added that there is no timetable for the roll carts’ implementation, with the purchase of the carts and trucking equipment yet to be proposed and approved.
Ultimately, Solid Waste Utility plans to continue to gather feedback from the community regarding long-term plans.
“There’s a lot of options, and that’s the hard part we’re having right now,” Keys said. “Figuring out which direction to go, and that we’ll need community feedback on.”
