City of Winfield Aids Southwestern Recycling Program

Last week, the Green Team had to scramble to find somewhere to recycle all of the recyclable materials collected at Southwestern College. The college has a “contract” with a recycling company out of Wichita. The company is supposed to pick up the recycling from the college once every two weeks. For some reason, the company has failed to continue with its regularly scheduled pickups.  According to Jason Speegle, Green Team Director, “they have not collected the recycling from the college since January 2. Our campus produces and collects a lot of recycling each week, so our recycling shed was certainly overflowing.” 

Southwestern made the decision to contract with this particular recycling company because they offered free pickup and single stream recycling, meaning the recycling did not need to be sorted. “The City of Winfield has a great recycling program and we were very happy with the recycling service that they have provided to the college over the years. However, as our recycling volumes have grown, the sorting of the recycling became overwhelming,” said Speegle.

The City of Winfield stepped in to help the college with its overflow of recycling. Green Team students and plant operations employees, in 6 pickups and a U-haul truck hauled the nearly 1,620 cubic feet of recyclables from the college out the Winfield fairgrounds. A crew from the correctional facility sorted some of the items into a large container that was eventually transported up to Waste Connections in Wichita for recycling. “We feel so fortunate to have city employees who are willing to work with the college and our students. The City of Winfield really bailed us out. I cannot thank them enough,” says Speegle.

Southwestern is currently looking for a recycling system. Protecting the single stream system is important to Speegle. “We would really like to avoid returning to the sorting method of collecting recycling, especially during the school year. My hope is to figure out a temporary solution to get us through May and then reevaluate during the summer.”