People in Scott County seem to be going all out for the new “All In” recycling program based on the numbers they’re seeing so far.
Trucks continue to stop at the newly-renovated recycling center in Davenport, dropping off all they’ve collected, and the material is coming in at record amounts.
In terms of tonnage, trucks brought in 195 tons of material in the first two weeks of August in 2015. This year, that number is at 435 tons and growing, more than doubling the recyclables coming in. This is why the Waste Commission of Scott County took the time to add on to their existing building and bring in new equipment that would efficiently sort through all the material that keeps on coming through the building. They opened the space just in time to start the new recycling program.
The new sorting equipment has also opened up opportunities for more jobs along the recycling line. The number of people working on those machines have almost doubled over the past year because of the need for people to efficiently sort the materials.
“It will increase. We’re already starting to see some other materials come in from other communities as well. We welcome that and we’ve planned for that and we hoped that would happen. So, as things continue to grow and we get more material, we’re going to track it,” Waste Commission of Scott County Communications Coordinator Brandy Welvaert said.
Starting out, Welvaert says they were estimating a 50% jump in material from a year ago, but the new and bigger numbers are a great surprise.
“We certainly also planned the facility to handle much more than that. While the increased tonnage is surprising, it’s something that we can handle and that we’re really excited about. It’s a good thing,” Welvaert said.
There are still some hiccups with the new system, trying to adjust to people getting used to what can and cannot be recycled.
They’re also set to give people the option of scaling down from their 95-gallon bin to something smaller that works better for their needs. Information about the sizes and how to get smaller bins can be found through the Go All In website.
