For the third straight year, more than million pounds of materials were recycled at the Buffalo-Johnson County Recycling Center.

According to Phil Gonzales, recycling center board member, the center has recycled comparable numbers for the past three years, approximately 1.2 million pounds.

Of that material the majority has been cardboard and paper products.

“By volume we do more paper products than we do anything else,” Gonzales said. “The number one thing recycled this year has been cardboard.”

Not only are the recycling efforts good for the environment but also the volume of material that is reused stretches the Johnson County Landfill’s lifespan, Gonzales said.

“We figure that for every three years that the landfill is in operation, one of those years is a freebie due to the recycle center,” Gonzales said. “We save that much material from going to the landfill. That said, it’s a 40-year lifespan on the landfill, we’re extending it to 53 years, and it’s millions of dollars to shut down a landfill.”

Recycling of electronic waste or e-waste also prevents toxic materials from entering the landfill, and according to Gonzales, e-waste is expensive to handle.

“E-waste is full of mercury and lead and all kinds of other carcinogens,” Gonzales said. “We keep that out the landfill and that’s phenomenal.”

While the center isn’t currently taking e-waste, board members have high hopes it will in the coming year.

“We lost our funder, but we’re working with our county commissioner representative (Bob Perry) now in getting it added back into our program,” Gonzales said. “Once we get it added back, and we’re hoping to get that done, we send it to a certified e-waste recycler back east. … We’re hoping to have it back by July of this year. So please hold your e-waste for the hazardous waste day, and we’re hoping to be operating and taking the e-waste in July.”

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