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Recycling, composting part of everyday life

Since 1995, Hays residents have had access to an alley and curb-side residential recycling program and a composting program.
Since their implementation, both programs have grown steadily.
About 80 percent of residents eligible for city refuse service participate in the curb-side recycling program. It is available at no extra charge. City crews pick up recyclables in the same location where the residences' refuse cans are situated.
On Mondays and Tuesdays, crews collect bagged trash from residences. On Thursdays and Fridays, they return, picking up recyclables in blue bags.
Where one lives determines whether one gets service on Monday-Thursday or on Tuesday-Friday.
Here are some other components in the program:
· Blue bags, sold in supermarkets, discount stores and other retail stores, are the symbol for recycling. Recyclables must be placed in blue bags. A number of local stores use blue-colored bags at their checkout counters. Customers can "recycle" those bags at home by putting their recycled items in them.
· Residents must pre-sort recyclables. All paper products - such as cardboard, newspapers, magazines, junk mail and phone books - can be mixed in a blue bag.
All other acceptable recyclables - such as clear and colored glass, plastics and aluminum and tin cans - can be mixed in another blue bag.
No. 1 and No. 2 plastics are accepted but not colored No. 2 plastics, such as detergent bottles.
· Cardboard and paper must be dry. They should not be placed outside if rain appears imminent.
· Blue bags filled with recyclables that are collected by city crews eventually are hauled to a recycling facility in Hutchinson. The city recently built its own recycling center and intends to begin baling paper products.
· Refuse can be put in any color bag except blue.
· Bags should be tightly secured so the contents won't fall out and cause littering.
· Bagged yard waste will be collected during the refuse rounds on Mondays and Tuesdays. A special sticker, sold in the city clerk's office, must be attached to bagged yard waste. Those stickers come in sets of five and are priced at $5.25 per set. This is considered trash and is sent to the transfer station.
· Trash and yard waste are hauled to the Ellis County solid waste transfer station, located at 1515 W. 55th, and then transported by private hauler to a landfill near Topeka. Bagged yard waste is sent to the solid waste site and not the city's composting site.
The city opened its composting site in March of 1999. The composting site can be reached by traveling east on 13th Street past Vine Street to General Custer Road, turning right and then continuing on General Custer to the site.
The site is a free disposal alternative for yard waste. Anyone in Ellis County can haul and deposit yard waste at the compost site free of charge. Yard waste accepted include grass clippings, garden waste, leaves and chipped wood. No tree limbs are accepted, however.
After decomposition has occurred the city makes compost available for the public to take at no cost.
Besides the recycling program and compost site, another service - special collections - is available to Hays residents.
Bulky items such as sofas will be hauled away by city crews for a price. Arrangements for special collections can be made by contacting the public works department at 10th and Vine. The telephone number is (785) 628-7357.
Residents can also contact private waste haulers to remove items city crews normally would not pick up.
The city reimplemented an alley cleanup program in the summer of 2000, and city commissioners approved it again for 2001.
The city raised rates 50 cents to pay for the cleanup.
Household hazardous waste - such as paint and oil - should not be thrown in the trash. This waste should be taken to the county's household hazardous waste collection site, located a half-mile west of the county's solid waste transfer station.
This site is open on the third Saturday each month from April through October. The site does not accept commercial hazardous waste.