Ephrata asks for recycling ideas
The Ephrata City Council agreed to focus recycling efforts on improving the existing recycling center on Alder Street.
EPHRATA - Ephrata is looking for more comments about how to improve its recycling center.
City Administrator Wes Crago said the city is asking for any people with ideas about how to improve the facility on Alder Street to submit them.
People can submit their comments to city hall, located at 121 Alder Street SW, by phone at 509-754-4601, or through the city's website, www.ephrata.org, he said.
"The plan would be to give you, at budget time, a refined list of priorities and a cost associated with those so you can work those into the budget for next year," Crago said during a recent city council meeting.
The suggestions came after the council decided to pursue improvements to the recycling center, rather than starting a curbside recycling program. People have asked for mixed paper and plastics bins.
Darlene Meyer wrote to the city, suggesting more choices at the existing facility, including bins for plastics, cans and magazines and phone books.
"A second facility on the south end would be helpful," she wrote. "I take some plastics to Walmart. The Moses Lake Walmart, at one time, had a bin for telephone books."
Meyer also stated she didn't want curbside recycling, citing the possible additional cost as a problem.
"Consolidated (Disposal) would be the principal benefactor," she wrote. "The city, and the rest of us with limited funds, would pay the bill."
Jordan Hansen also suggested adding more options at the existing facility, stating in his email to the city, it was the better option for him and the people he has spoken with.
"Currently, I am bringing plastic material to the Moses Lake recycling center that is located on West Broadway and taking newspaper and cardboard to the Ephrata facility," Hansen wrote. "Often I find myself taking to the Moses Lake facility and find myself feeling uncomfortable as it is located, in what I consider, undesirable part of town. I do not have those same feelings at the Ephrata facility."
Hansen also suggested having a bin for steel cans and a community composting facility for yard waste.