Trashtalk

A Hiawatha-based disposal company is taking the recycling from at least one of its customers - the Hamburg Inn in Iowa City - to the landfill, despite being paid an additional fee to recycle the items.

Recycling officials in Eastern Iowa say this isn't the first time a customer has complained their recycling is going to the landfill but taking your business elsewhere is the best resolution. There is no oversight agency for the private disposal industry.

Hamburg management said they've repeatedly seen ABC Disposal Systems Inc. dump the restaurant's garbage and recyclables into the back of the same truck. A Gazette reporter early Monday also witnessed an ABC driver pull separate Dumpsters for garbage and recycling from behind the Hamburg and combine them.

When asked about it, ABC management admitted they no longer recycle the sorted materials for the Hamburg Inn because the restaurant consistently did a poor job of sorting and keeping the recycling free of food contamination.

Jennifer Ryan Fencl, environmental services director for the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, said it's difficult to prove a company isn't recycling as promised or to make them do it.

And sorting issues on the customer end are common, she said.

“There really isn't a garbage police that has anything to do with verifying that the service offered is the service they're paying for,” Fencl said. “If they're not providing the service you think you're paying for, in Iowa, you break the contract and say, ‘You're not our contractor anymore.' ”

Hamburg manager Jay Schworn said he contracted with ABC Disposal last year to come by with two trucks on designated days, take the garbage to the landfill and take the sorted recyclables to ABC's recycling facility in Cedar Rapids. Schworn said his dishwashers clean recyclables that contained food.

Chad Carter, a manager for ABC Disposal, said the Hamburg's recyclables consistently were contaminated, and a garbage truck was having to return to the restaurant to pick up the tainted material. Carter said a driver spoke with restaurant staff about it, but Carter and Schworn had not spoken directly about it.

When asked if there are other cases where ABC takes material intended to be recycled to the landfill because of contamination, Carter said, “every hauler has a handful of people who can't get things correct.”

Iowa City recycling coordinator Jen Jordan said taking their business elsewhere is the best recourse any residential or commercial customer can take if they think their garbage collector isn't recycling.

“There are ways to get out of a contract,” Jordan said, “and I would recommend doing so as soon as possible.”

The city occasionally fields recycling complaints from residents, Jordan said, and there are private haulers with better reputations than others. She didn't discuss specific cases.

Sometimes, she said, the garbage trucks at issue are “split” and capable of taking garbage and recycling at the same time.