Survey to gauge interest in recyling

Talk about it

Students at Jamestown College have teamed up with a community recycling survey committee to create a survey that will gauge a wide section of community’s interest in recycling and curbside pickup of recyclables.

As part of the Community Alliance for Management Consulting class, college students Nathan Peine and Bradley Wolbert worked with the committee on survey questions and marketing, Peine said.

The survey will be available online and in hard copy for a month at various high traffic spots in James-town, he said. It would then take a month to analyze the results.

“It’s becoming such a strong trend across the country,” Peine said of recycling.

One of the main goals of the survey is to find ways to reduce the amount of waste in the city’s landfill.

By recycling more, less waste will go into the landfill, which increases the life expectancy of landfill cells, he said.

A cell is a costly tract of land at the city landfill that has environmental modifications to prevent groundwater contamination, or leeching.

When the recycling center was closed about a year ago, the cell capacity was listed as five years. After it reopened the capacity grew to 12 years because of less waste piling up, Peine said.

“When you’re looking at long-term disposal of materials, if you’re going to be landfilling, that is expensive,” said John Brauner, chair of the biology department at Jamestown College and recycling survey committee member. “The reason for that expense is not only does it all have to be constructed and maintained during its life, it has to be monitored afterwards.”

Leeching of water is a natural process for most landfills, including Jamestown’s, said Bill Snyder, city sanitation department foreman.

“We pump it out and run it through the lagoon system at the water plant,” Snyder said.

Having the water break through the cell would only happen in a catastrophic event, he said.

The recycling measures the survey will question if later implemented could lead to a dramatic decrease in the amount of materials in the landfill, he said.

Potentially, more than half of materials thrown away can be recycled, Brauner said.

“Just because you got the land doesn’t mean you shouldn’t actively start to reduce what you put in the ground,” said Tim Wiley, recycling survey committee member.

Curbside pickup will also make it easier to recycle, which would lead to more people participating, he said.

“If recycling is made convenient, then people will participate,” Brauner said.

Associated with curbside pickup is the cost per month. Other cities in North Dakota charge residents for the convenience.

Peine estimates the cost of around $4 a month.

Distribution of the survey is scheduled in the next couple of weeks.

Sun reporter Ben Rodgers can be reached at 701-952-8455 or by e-mail at brodgers@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, recycling