By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Some changes are in the works for the way Larned residents can recycle. The current recycling center, operated by Sunflower Diversified Services in Great Bend, was closed last Thursday. The city of Larned recently purchased a pair of recycling trailers, and City Administrator Brad Eilts hopes to have recycling services up and running this week.
"Recycling seems to be a real focus of a lot of people in town," he said. "People are very motivated to do recycling. It's been a hassle now because they go, all the bins are full. It's just a real mess. We're hoping people will continue to recycle, but I think we'll see less problems when we are regularly getting rid of everything that's accumulated."
Due to concerns about the cleanliness of the recycling center, the Larned City Council agreed in August to take over the center. The city purchased several trailers, and a 10-bin trailer arrived last week. Another cardboard trailer is on the way. The recycling center was closed late last week so the city can clean and reorganize the area.
"We're looking at ways to control some of that," Eilts said. "Part of that will be we will be hauling the recycling to Sunflower Diversified's facility in Great Bend more frequently."
The new AlleyCat trailer will have separate containers for various types of materials like glass, plastics, and metals that will need to be sorted prior to recycling. Eilts encourages residents to use the center responsibly for the benefit of all.
"We've got a lot of people that bring trash in, too," he said. "That's actually illegal. So we're going to try to figure out ways we can control that, and explore ideas, look at maybe harnessing some volunteer support to make it successful."