By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
When the Sonoco Paper plant in Hutchinson closed this past March, it caused many local recycling companies to scramble to find other facilities to accept their recyclables. Sunflower Diversified Services, in Great Bend, was one of those companies left scrambling.
In August, the Sunflower Recycling Center received a $23,254 grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to assist with solid waste reduction. Sunflower CEO Shelby Zuniga said the grant will be used to construct a new building at their recycling plant to be used for storage.
"We have to have some storage room to keep materials dry and secure until we can ship those out," said Zuniga. "We were approved for a grant for a building. It'll be a cheap and effective building to keep things dry."
With the Sonoco Paper plant shutting down, Sunflower is now forced to transfer their recycling items further out. The solid waste reduction grants were awarded to 14 different cities.