Recycling plan to come together

Dickinson residents will see recycling collection sites as early as this spring if the Dickinson Recycling Committee's plan gets approved.

The committee met Tuesday at City Hall.

"Spring would be a great time to start recycling," said Dickinson resident Jay Greenwood. "That is when people start spring cleaning and doing yard work."

City Administrator Shawn Kessel said the committee plans to have four or five community drop off sites located around town.

"The city will collect yard waste, used oil and cardboard," Kessel said. "We would then invite other entities to place containers on our site for other recyclable items. And in turn they would be responsible for the collection of those items."

Dickinson City Commission Vice President Gene Jackson said he and Kessel estimate the cost of creating the sites at about $300,000.

Kessel says the city has the money and estimates that there is a little less than $385,000 in the account.

"If we get approval from the Dickinson City Commission we will begin leveling ground, building fences and putting up those sites this spring," Kessel said. He added that the sites will also have security measures in place.

Jackson and Kessel posed concerns about favoritism of one entity over another at the collection sites.

"We want to make the sites big enough so that we don't have to turn anyone away," Kessel said. "I am also concerned that if we set up these collection sites and then have an entity come in that will pick up all those materials that we can all coexist."

Commission members also discussed the possibility of doing curbside collection in the future.

Dickinson resident Robert Musick said the biggest obstacles with curbside collection are cost, snow, rain and wind.

"The weather here makes a big difference in the way we collect both garbage and recyclables," Dickinson resident Nick Gates said. "Everything from the design of the trucks to the design of the garbage containers have to do with fighting the elements and making sure there isn't trash all over the street."

Resident Suzanne Russ said when curbside collection becomes a real possibility it is important to keep the cost to participants as low as possible.

"We want to give people an incentive to recycle, not punish them for doing the right thing," Russ said.

The next step is for city commissioners to approve or deny the proposal.