Audit examines ways to reduce trash in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - Leading up to Earth Day, city officials were doing a double check Wednesday of city refuse as they strive to lead by example in sustainability practices.

First up was a waste audit at the City Services Center. About 15 people adorned bodysuits to sort through the trash bin at the building, which houses several departments and about 125 regular staff. Garbage from City Hall is trucked there, too.

'What we were finding was a lot of food scraps, apple cores, banana peels, a lot of napkins and paper towels - that was the largest volume of what we found - and bottles,” said Eric Holthaus, hired as the city's first-ever sustainability coordinator in November.

Several other local activities are recognizing Friday's Earth Day, Earth Week and Earth Month. Still to come is Earth EcoFest 2016 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the NewBohemia Arts and Culture District. On Friday, volunteers with Transamerica, Alliant Energy, Indian Creek Nature Center and Trees Forever's TreeKeepers will be planting 40 native shade trees at the Indian Creek Nature Center's Amazing Space campus, 5300 Otis Road SE.

For Cedar Rapids, the waste audit is one of a variety of avenues the city is taking to become more green. Among the efforts, the city is revising its topsoil rules to help filter out toxins from water sources, expanding bike lanes and trails and will install solar panels on the city's bus barn.

Waste audits typically find that only a quarter to a third of trash should truly go to a landfill, while the rest can be diverted by composting or recycling, Holthaus said. He didn't have a breakdown yet for Wednesday's audit.

In July, the city will employ targeted waste reduction strategies at the City Services Center, which already has recycling and composting available, Holthaus said.

The plan is to make it easier to divert waste by having receptacle bins at more locations, having mini-garbages inside bins to simplify separating the material, and giving better information about what should be recycled, composted or trashed.

'We are trying to make composting as easy or easier than trash,” he said.

Holthaus said the performance will be reassessed in the fall, with the hope of expanding waste reduction to other city buildings.

City Council member Scott Overland was among the volunteers, using his lunch hour to participate in the waste audit. He said he was surprised to see how much could be diverted from the landfill.

The tipping fee at the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency is $38 per ton. But recycling fees are set for a major rate increase.

The agency had a contract for $34.50 per ton for processing recycling, which was reduced to about $22.50 per ton after proceeds from a cost-sharing agreement with former contractor City Carton Recycling, which was sold to Republic Services. The only bid for a new contract is $65 per ton for recycling processing from Republic.