Citizens for Recycling will travel to the Urbana Recycling Company on Monday.

According to group member Donna Wieck, about eight community members are expected to make the trip.

Wieck said most of the members are interested in the process by which Charleston’s recyclables are sorted.

“Most of us are active or retired teachers,” said Wieck, a retired teacher from Mark Twain Elementary School. “We are going for the fun of it.”

Monday’s meeting at Wesley United Methodist Church will not be canceled, Wieck said. Rick Galloway, manager of Veolia, will be the keynote speaker. The meeting will commence at 6:45 p.m.

The newly formed community based organization met for the first time on Monday with several city officials. Wieck said she feels encouraged to continue the public dialogue because the City Council members were very approachable.

Citizens for Recycling is planning to continue its campaign by holding future meetings.

Economics of trash

The Charleston City Council is interested in working with the residents to improve recycling, but it needs to determine the economic ramifications of losing the landfill and changing the city’s existing recycling program.

With the landfill behind Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital closing around the fall, refuse will go to another transfer station in either Danville or Decatur. Charleston’s landfill receives 70 tons of refuse each month, according to Jeff Lahr, city council member and Regional Planning Commission member.

Wieck said the landfill met its capacity sooner than expected because Charleston did not recycle enough.

Contractors will most likely charge more money for extra handling processes due to the lack of a landfill, Lahr said. The handling costs include workers’ wages, rights to deposit refuse in holding areas and costs for transportation.

Many citizens at Monday’s meeting said they would like a curbside program implemented instead of the drop off program currently in place.

Lahr said Coles County gets about $40,000 a year to run recycling programs. Approximately $20,000 of that money is split evenly between Charleston, Oakland, Humboldt and Ashmore for recycling programs.

With a curbside program, the cost of collecting Charleston’s recycling could possibly rise between 40 and 60 percent, or approximately $30,000, Lahr said.

Some citizens wanted the city to team up with Mattoon in collecting recyclables. Lahr explained that Mattoon is independent from the county program that Charleston has been apart of for the last few years.

Mattoon received a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Lahr said. Mattoon received a $29,000 recycling grant in 2005 to purchase nine large drop-off recycling collection containers, according to the IDCEO Web site.

Mattoon’s contractor, Howard’s Trash Service, also gained a $50,000 grant to purchase a baler to compress the recyclables.

Lahr said grants are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in Illinois because there is less government money available.

City Manager Scott Smith said another evaluation the city council is considering is to review the private contractors who collect the refuse and recycling.

Smith said there are three companies that are licensed by Charleston: Coles County Sanitation and Recycling, Inc., Morton Disposal, and Veolia.

Having one company operating within the city would put less weight on the roads and prevent some future structural damages to the roads, Smith said.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or at rtbajek@eiu.edu.