City of Buffalo/Johnson County Recycling Centers Program
The City of Buffalo/Johnson County Recycle Center is an important component of solid waste management for our County and City of Buffalo residents. The Center provides a component of waste management benefit to the community by:
- Saving county residence tip weights to the landfill to lessen weights by recycling cardboard, glass, aluminum, steel, paper, polystyrene (Styrofoam), clothing, books, and other recyclables, prior to crossing the landfill scales.
- Reducing the City’s tip fees through city residence volunteer recycling,
- Extending the landfill’s life by providing approximately a 12% diversion rate.
- Donating books and clothing to needy.
- Providing full-time work for two county residents and part-time work for up to four more.
- Creating jobs for private curb side recyclers and truck haulers.
In 2020 the Recycle Center diverted 1,592,704 pounds (800 tons) from the landfill. This translates to $60,000 using $75/ton tip weight fee.The Center operation budget is $110,000 - $140,000/year. Our major funding has been through 1 percent tax allocations approximately ½ from County, ½ from City.The Recycle Center’s biggest contribution is landfill diversion. Currently recyclers divert 12% with very few incentives to recycle. The diversion of 600 tons of material has been calculated to save approximately 12%, by weight to the landfill over the 42 year life of the landfill or adding 10-12 years to landfill life which will be the savings of opening a new landfill.Recycling is a pay forward program by providing recycling program to save energy, landfill opening cost and building and supporting a conservation ethic for county residence and visitors.
Buffalo-Johnson County Recycling Center
Revised February, 2021 The Recycling Center, located at 550 Butte Street, Buffalo, west of Ace Hardware is open 8-5 Monday through Friday for recyclable items to be dropped off. Please call 217-0320 from 8 am to 4 pm weekdays for recycling questions or ask the staff working at the center. Call prior to bringing large amounts of product. You may also e-mail the Center Board Member with your questions or suggestions to: Phil Gonzales, phil@gonzalesmail.com.The Recycling Center Joint Powers Board meets the second Monday of the month at 5:15 pm at the Recycling Center. Visitors and suggestions are welcome. Please contact Board Chair Bill Ostheimer, e-mail bostheimer8@gmail or call 670-1560 to be placed on the agenda.Items that cannot be accepted: (Check the bulletin board on the front of the building for updates or changes)
- Waxed containers: wax milk cartons, butter packaging or similar waxed products.
- Plastics numbered 3 thru 7, as well as plastic bags, shrink wrap, bread bags, plastic sheeting or similar items.
- Electronic Waste and E-Waste: Johnson County Solid Waste Landfill can accept these items, from households.
- Batteries, Printer Ink Cartridges and Car Seats.
- in addition we do not accept the following items: Refrigerators, air conditioners, large appliances or similar, light bulbs, purses, wallets, backpacks, totes, suitcases, belts, stuffed animals, baseball caps, toys, puzzles, board games, pots and pans, silverware, vases, ceramics, dinnerware, window glass or mirrors, vehicle parts, mattresses, furniture, blown-in or sprayed insulation, non-drained oil containers, propane containers, and vehicle batteries.
- Soft Polystyrenes or Styrofoam’s: food product trays, packing peanuts and soft packing plastics.
Please properly dispose of these items not accepted by the Recycle Center.The following recyclables can be dropped off to the center. The center is a self serve MRF-(Multi Reuse Facility, pronounced “MURF”) station; windows are marked as to where product is to be placed:
- Plastics: Numbered 1 and 2 plastics and bubble wrap. Please remove plastic caps from containers, rinse and remove all metal. You can help our processing efficiency by separating your number 1 and 2 plastics and bubble wrap. We do take plastic oil containers, number 2, if they have been thoroughly drained. We do take chemical containers, number 2, if thoroughly washed to manufactures and EPA specifications.
- Cans/metal, Aluminum and tin (steel) cans: Please rinse and separate aluminum cans from tin (steel) cans. Place steel metal lids (from glass jars and cans) with the tin (steel) cans. Use a magnet to determine if some cans with white linings are aluminum or steel.
- Aluminum foil: Place in the outside container by the aluminum can drop-off window.
- Glass: Food product glass only, canning jars and drink bottles, regardless of color. Please rinse and remove metal lids and place them with the tin (steel) recycling products. Place all food product glass in the blue metal bins located in front of the building.
- Cardboard: Corrugated, paperboard, egg cartons, cardboard tubing or similar. Cardboard is open celled with tubes viewed from side. Please place small cardboard containers and cardboard tubing in larger cardboard boxes before dropping them off.
- Paper: School and office paper, newspapers, catalogs, magazines, telephone books, and junk mail. Paper board, closed cells when viewed from side, cereal boxes, shoe boxes and other lightweight boxes is paper, not corrugated paperboard. Not all wrapping paper is recyclable; please note that slick wrapping paper cannot be recycled. Single bags of shredded paper can be dropped off daily. We ask that businesses with large numbers volume of shredded paper drop them off the first Thursday of each month.
- Books: Hard and soft-cover books.
- Polystyrenes or Styrofoam: Hard packing polystyrene only.
- Textiles and Clothing: Clothing, sheets, towels, tablecloths, blankets, curtains, sleeping bags, socks, paired shoes or boots. Please note these items are being re-purposed and need to be clean.
If you are unsure if an item can be recycled, please ask one of our employees at the Recycle Center or contact board members.Keeping recycled items clean, sorted and not mixed with extraneous items (garbage) will ensure that we will find outlets for your recycled items. Contaminated loads of recycled items can be rejected by our markets.Thank you for Recycling, Recycling has many benefits, the biggest benefits being extending the life of our landfill and reducing the need to use limited natural resources to manufacture new products.REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.A printable copy of this document can be downloaded Web Page Update-February 2021.
Members
County Appointed
- Dave Smith (Term Expires January 2024)
- Rachel Woita (Term Expires January 2026)
- Kim Harvey - Joint (Term Expires January 2025)
- Bob Perry, Commissioner Liaison
City Appointed
- Bill Ostheimer (Term Expires January 2023)
- Mara Abbott (Term Expires January 2024)
Meeting Information
- Meets at Recycle Center- 550 Butte Street; Buffalo. Phone number is 217-0320
- 2nd Monday of each month
- 4:30 p.m.
- Contact Bill Ostheimer (307-670-1560) to be placed on the agenda
Minutes and Financials
