Moline: Getting ready to recycle

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By Dustin Lemmon | Saturday, July 7, 2007 5:53 PM CDT | () comments

Chris Cutler, left, and Jose Villagomez of the Midland Davis Corporation work to manually separate out pieces of plastic and other random items from the cardboard they are recycling. Marty Davis estimates that the company moves approximately 115 tons of paper and cardboard per day which they separate by grade.

It’s still at least six months away, but eventually the City of Moline will have curbside recycling for its residents.

Doug House, general manager of municipal services, said the city is working on a contract with Midland Davis Corp. of Moline, a company founded in 1892.

The contract should be presented to the City Council for final approval in August and the program should be up and running by January or February, he said.

House said residents seem happy with the city’s decision to contract curbside recycling.

“I would say to this point it’s been the best-received program we’ve had to date,” he said, noting that he has been with the city nine years. “It seems like an idea that’s been a long time coming.”

House said Moline and other Illinois Quad-Cities have been slow to offer curbside recycling because the cost to dump at local landfills has remained low compared to elsewhere in the state and, unlike in Iowa, there are no financial incentives to offering a program. He said locally it costs $15.45 a ton to dump at landfills, while in Chicago suburbs the cost is about $130 a ton. Iowa’s bottle tax, he added, provides a financial boost to

communities, inspiring curbside recycling programs in Davenport and Bettendorf.

Once the contract is completed, Midland Davis will purchase two trucks and provide 16,000 containers to Moline residents, the company’s owner Marty Davis said, adding that it will take some time to train employees.

The 48-gallon containers will hold plastic, paper, cardboard, junk mail and tin and aluminum cans, but not glass. Residents do not have to presort the materials, Davis said, adding that machinery and employees at the business will do that.

The trucks will go around and pick up recyclables every two weeks on the same day that a resident’s trash is picked up. He said the trucks will come around the same time as city garbage trucks.

“It’s going to be a very user-friendly system,” Davis said.

The company already takes recyclable materials from several local businesses and the Illinois cities of East Peoria and Pekin have their own trucks that deliver curbside recycling materials to the Moline business, Davis said.

Mayor Don Welvaert said he was convinced after seeing the results of a week-long recycling trial period over the Christmas holiday last year that curbside recycling was right for Moline.

“We felt now was the time to implement a curbside recycling program,” he said. “It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Welvaert said he’s heard from about 20 residents who are in favor of the project, including several new residents to the area who are often surprised that a community of Moline’s size doesn’t already offer such a program.

He has only heard from one dissenter, who was opposed to having to separate trash and recyclables. No one has complained to him about the $2.45 per month residents will have to pay for the service.

Both Welvaert and Davis said they believe other area Illinois communities that do not already offer curbside recycling now will take an interest.

“I think they’re all interested and want to see how it goes with Moline,” Davis said.

Welvaert said Moline learned from Rock Island’s mistakes when it implemented automated trash pickup first. He believes Rock Island now will watch and learn from Moline’s experience with introducing curbside recycling.

“I do know that Rock Island is watching us very closely,” he said. “I do think curbside recycling is long overdue in our community.”

Rock Island City Administrator John Phillips said the city is following what Moline is doing and Rock Island staff will be providing more information to the City Council about a curbside recycling program.

“We are seeking information from Moline about their bid,” he said. “This is new information that is available. Now we have a bid price from a comparable city.”

Phillips said information could be provided to the council within a month or so, but even if a decision is made that service would not come before next fiscal year, which begins in April 2008.

“There has always been interest in a curbside recycling program,” he said. “There has been concern about the cost.”

Recycling program at A glance

Moline may receive its first curbside recycling program by the start of next year. The city is working on a contract with Midland Davis Corp., a local company founded in 1892.

The contract should be presented to the City Council for final approval in August.

If approved, the program should be up and running by January or February 2008.

Curbside recycling will cost homeowners $2.45 per month.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.