Too much trash
Recycling in Gallup faces logistics problems

ABOVE: The Rainbow recycling center, seen here in July, is overflowing with items dropped off by residents. So much has been left at the facility the volunteer group that runs it says they can no longer keep up with the demand and will close it.down.— © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy BELOW: In a file photograph, Jillian Sweeney, 11, crushes a soda can along with other members of the Girl Scout troop 3505, Nov. 19, 2005, during the recycling fair and collection at the Larry Brian Mitchell Recreation Center in Gallup.— © 2008 Gallup Independent

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — For years, the McKinley Citizens Recycle Council has been urging area residents to be green and recycle their paper, aluminum cans, cardboard and glass.

And Gallupians have apparently heard the message. In fact, the council’s efforts to get the community to recycle has gone so well that the group has voted to get out of the business of recycling materials.

The group, at its last meeting, voted to close down the Rainbow Recycle Center on Maloney because its members — all volunteers — can’t keep up with the amount of materials that Gallupians are now turning in at the center to recycle.

Gerald O’Hara, one of the co-chairmen of the council, said Monday that it has just become too much for the volunteers to handle and council officials are now talking with the city and officials at the Solid Waste Authority about taking the center over.

For years, he said, the council has relied on the group’s volunteers — which number a core group of six to eight and expands to 24 or 30 when you count occasional volunteers — to help keep the recycling center functioning.

This not only means helping to sort out the bins to make sure that each contains the proper recycling materials, but cleaning up the trash that accumulates there each week.

Gallup Mayor Harry Mendoza said the trash situation at the center has been a continuous problem. “It looks like a dump,” he said.

Area residents who don’t want to take the time to go to the landfill or pay the landfill’s fees to dump their trash have taken the easy way out and dumped their trash at the center forcing the council’s volunteers to deal with it.

“We’re not talking tons of trash,” said O’Hara, who estimated that when cleanup time comes around, volunteers would find between 400 and 500 pounds of trash that has to be picked up and carted to the dump.

But this all takes time and doing this as well as carting out the various recycables to the various places around town that will take them has become more and more of a chore.

The council turns in the glass to Gallup Sand and Gravel, the cardboard to the Community Pantry and other items to George Pollick at Gallup Camper Sales as part of its efforts to be environmentally green. It doesn’t do it for the money since the materials are turned over at no cost to the other recyclers.

Technically, the center is run as a convenience to the community since area residents could go to the places that the council goes to as well as the Recycle America vans that are located throughout town and get money for their recyclables. Not a whole lot of money — usually just a few dollars — which is why a lot of people use the center because they can drop off all of their recyclables in one spot without going to several places.

The future of this effort will be decided, O’Hara said, when the group meets with Mendoza and others government officials in the area to see what the future holds.

He pointed out that in most cities and towns, this kind of effort is managed by either the city or county government and the council would like to see that happen here.

County Manager Tom Trujillo said the county has some funds available which could be used in the effort.

As for Mednoza, he said there is discussion about moving the center from its present location to the transfer station where a couple of people would be hired to be on hand to make sure the recyclable materials go in the right bins and make sure that no trash is included.

“We’re going to try and work it out so the program can continue in some way,” he said.