Hundreds take advantage of spring cleanup

Andrew McKinney adds to the large assortment of household hazardous waste dropped off Saturday morning during the annual spring clean up day at the Nevada-Vernon County Recycling Center.

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

Nevada and Vernon County residents took advantage of the nice weather Saturday morning to drop off more unwanted items at the Recycling Center than during any previous clean-up day held at the Recycling Center.

Vernon County resident Jerry Janes throws a bag of trash into a dumpster Saturday morning.

"This has picked up a lot more interest in the last couple of years," Ron Clow, Nevada director of planning, said Monday afternoon.

"We filled nine dumpsters," Clow said.

"We kept compacting the contents with a backhoe, but we still needed them all," he said.

In past years they have contracted for six dumpsters, with a seventh available if needed.

There were cars lined up from both the north and south entrances to unload their cars and truck for most of the four hours the center was open.

This year, WCA had the low bid for the dumpsters, which allowed the Recycling Center to accept yard waste for the first time, because WCA hauls their trash to Kansas landfills, which accept yard waste. Missouri landfills are not permitted to take yard waste.

"We had quite a few bring in their leaves and limbs," he said.

Kevin McCann, the area WCA manager, joined the regular employees and regular volunteers to help with the cleanup day.

David Irwin, who works at the Recycling Center, said that they had a surprise Saturday morning when several members of the Northeast Vernon County Elementary School student council showed up to help with the cleanup.

"They were a blessing," Irwin said Saturday morning.

The girls spent their morning helping people unload their vehicles and doing whatever was needed.

"We're helping out trying to save the earth," Cameo Longstreth, NEVC volunteer, said while carrying trash from a car to a recycling bin.

Clow said that in addition to filling the nine dumpsters, they collected 17 televisions, 40 computers and various other electronics, 713 car tires, 156 truck tires, 50 miscellaneous tires and a large assortment of hazardous household waste materials.

This year, the facility is working with the local NAPA store to dispose of the used oil brought in, he said.

A lot of the household waste that was brought in was latex paint, which Clow said residents can dispose of themselves by mixing sawdust or dirt in the liquid paint so it solidifies. It can then be put in their regular trash rather than waiting all year for a hazardous waste collection.

Clow said that they would take most of the other hazardous materials to Joplin, where it can be properly disposed of.

The cost for the trash bins used and the tipping fees are paid jointly by Nevada and Vernon County. All of the other costs are covered by grants the Recycling Center receives from the Region M Solid Waste District. The grants issued by the Waste District come from tipping fees at landfills.

"It went well," Clow said.

"We intend to continue doing this twice a year as long as it is needed," he said.

Now that the spring clean up is over Clow said that they can get busy with making some additions to the Recycling Center, starting with putting up some fencing and a covered loading dock.

"In the next couple of months there will be noticeable changes," he said.