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When the city of Lincoln developed a new sanitary landfill in the fall of 1987, then-mayor Bill Harris thought it was a great time to create a new office for the city government.
With the backing of the Lincoln community, the Lincoln Recycling Office became the state's first-full time municipal recycling program.
Two decade later, the program still makes progress as Gene Hanlon, recycling coordinator for Lincoln, said there was a 5.9 percent increase in the total weight of products recycled in the 2006-2007 fiscal year from the previous year.
"We've seen increases across the board of materials being recycled," Hanlon said.
The total amount recycled at Lincoln's drop-off sites from Sept. 1, 2006, to Aug. 31, 2007, was 7,075 tons. Most products are newspaper, but also included aluminum and tin cans, glass and plastic bottles and cardboard.
Despite the massive amount of recyclables saved from the landfills of Nebraska, the program loses money. But Hanlon said the environmental savings far outweigh the monetary costs in running such a program.
In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, there were about $400,000 in costs associated with the program and $351,000 in revenues from recycling the products through a local company.
The difference in expense and revenue is made up by an occupation tax in Lincoln in which costs are incurred for each ton of residential and commercial waste by city inhabitants.
"We still recoup more than 80 percent of what we spend on the program so I'd say it's pretty efficient," Hanlon said.
There are 33 collection sites citywide, making it efficient for residents to drop off recyclables regardless of their address.
Something residents might be unaware of: There are many other less common items that can be recycled at various locations across Lincoln.
The city of Lincoln Web site includes a list of hard to recycle items and places they can be recycled. For the list, visit www.lincoln.ne.gov and type the key word "recycling."
Items listed include appliances, computer equipment, pesticides and automobiles.
Spencer Whitney, a manager at Capital City Auto Recyclers, said his company will pick up any salvage vehicle as long as a valid title can be transferred to the company.
"We'll decide if we need parts from the vehicle or if we'll just turn it into scrap," Whitney said. "Most everything we pay cash for."
"We sell Freon to other facilities for their use and we even recycle oil and transmission fluid. We heat our building with that stuff."
jeremybuckley@dailynebraskan.com
