Input from Joplin residents could help city officials adjust trash and recycling services, and reduce what is sent to landfills for the next 20 years. A survey is currently being taken by an engineering consultant, Burns and McDonnell, to obtain information that will go into a new master plan for trash, recycling and yard waste disposal. Meetings were held at City Hall to explain what the master plan will do and to allow those in the trash and recycling business as well as residents to participate in the survey. “The necessity of the master plan itself is for the city to start figuring out a way to reduce our load of trash that goes to the landfills and how we can recycle or reuse some items in a better way,” said Lynden Lawson, the city’s assistant public works director over operations.
By hiring the consultant, Burns and McDonnell can evaluate and make recommendations on how to meet goals that are to be established to reduce waste that goes into landfills. Services involved include trash pickup, curbside recycling pickup, recycling center operations, yard waste disposal for composting, and tree limb drop off that provides chipped mulch for use by residents.
Lawson said the City Council as well as city staff will analyze the study’s results so that any needed changes can be discussed. “The other part of this is education,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that go on with solid waste where we haven’t done a good job of educating our citizens. By coming here today and having this forum, it gives citizens a chance to find out about something they may not have known about.”