Recycling services have resumed at the Montezuma County Landfill after being halted over the summer due to equipment failures. Between out-of-stock parts and technological incompatibility, the process of repairing key parts of the recycling process took longer than planned. The recycling backlog will be addressed, and efforts will be made to ensure smooth operations going forward. The county is also focused on reducing contamination in recyclables, which slows down processing and can lead to delays in the recycling process. By Hannah Robertson. This story is sponsored by Blondie’s Trophy Room and Hospice of Montezuma.
Transcript
After a summer long wait, recycling is once again up and running at the Montezuma County landfill. From broken pieces to incorrectly programmed chips, the team has been working tirelessly and creatively to bring recycling services back to the county. You’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by Blondie’s Trophy Room and Hospice of Montezuma. I’m Connor Shreve. The County’s woes started earlier this summer when the strapper, which secures the recyclables that have been compressed into bales, broke.
The strapper and the baler through their wiring and computer talk to each other. So the baler knows what the strapper’s doing, the strapper knows what the baler’s doing so it all flows in a process where in an automatic mode, you’re baling and it comes out and the strapper straps it and keeps, it’s an ongoing cycle. The old strapper got to the point, it finally got to the point, it shelled a major gear, and these parts for this old strapper are very expensive. So I finally stopped recycling so we could order a new strapper.
The County was able to purchase the needed part and went about replacing it, which required cutting off the broken part of the strapper and welding the new part on. But because of the age of the machinery, the newer technology in the strapper could no longer communicate with the baler.
Our modem failed, the old telephone line modems, so we had to buy a new modem from them. They programmed it, sent it to us so it could go through the internet. We got it. They hooked it up, they could talk to the modem, but the modem wouldn’t talk to the baler. What do we need to do to fix this? They said, “Well, we need those SLC cards out of the baler, we can program the ports on those cards to talk to this new modem.” I’m like, “Fine, you’ll have ’em next day air.” I took both of ’em out, sent ’em next day air, they sent ’em back second day air, which this was last week, we got ’em back, they programmed ’em wrong. But, thankfully, the guy from Accent Wire, Bobby Fields was there, and with him and his engineers, they got our baler running on one of the SLC cards.
Once the County has caught up on the recycling backlog from the summer, it plans to make sure both cards are programmed correctly to keep the machines running smoothly. The Montezuma County landfill is responsible for the processing of recyclables in the county, which does come with some limitations due to the size of the facility.
And the biggest issue we have is people thinking that, well, it’s plastic, well, it’s recyclable. Well, that’s not true. We only accept one through twos, number ones, number two naturals and number two colors.
Contamination slows down the process, causing time, work, and often a loss of money. It can also sometimes result in recyclable material ending up in landfills because there’s too much non-recyclable material mixed in. The county website does feature a video and interactive tools to help determine if that carton is something that can be recycled at the county facility or not. With the baler, strapper and electronics all now working, the county is ready to start accepting recyclable goods as usual.
Well, obviously we’re going to have a lot to get caught up on here in the next week or two, so hopefully the public will understand that if we get too full, we’re going to back off a little bit till we get caught up. But that’s where we’re at, we’re up and running.
Find regular updates and information about the landfill, services offered, and more on the county’s website and follow social media for updates. Find more information about this and other stories at Montezuma Local News. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Network, I’m Connor Shreve.
