Expert team of trash sorters anaylze Linn County landfill

Anything thrown away in Linn County this weekend may get a closer look by an expert team of “trash sorters.”

The Cedar Rapids-Linn County Solid Waste Agency hired contractors to analyze everything that goes into the main landfill north of Marion.  And when the sorters are done, the solid waste agency should have a complete report card on recycling in the county.

Most waste haulers won't notice anything unusual going on.  Eight out of every nine trucks will dump the trash in the usual location in one of the landfill cells.  But one out of every nine trucks will get directed to a special location where every banana peel, piece of waste paper and everything else will get analyzed, weighed and sorted by hand.

Joe Horaney, communications director for the solid waste agency, said when it's over, the agency will know a lot more about what's going in the trash.  “It's invaluable,” Horaney said, “we're really getting a chance to see what people are throwing away-and that helps us do our job.”

What landfill operators really want to know is how many items that could get recycled end up in the 200,000 tons of trash that gets buried at the landfill every year.  Once the agency knows that answer, it can direct efforts target recyclable items that should get separated.

Judy and Elmer Gilow, along with partner Mike Rogers, will try to provide the answers.  They operate as G-R-G Analysis and travel the country up to 20 weeks a year visiting landfills and picking through all the trash.  The Gilows have sorted trash for more than 20 years.

The Gilows first picked through trash in Linn County in 1996.  They returned in 1999 and 2005 and again this year.  The sorters divide up trash into paper, plastic, glass, wood and other categories to see how many recyclables are slipping into the waste stream.   Judy Gilow said the good news, at first glance, is both people are businesses are obviously recycling much more than they did 14 years ago during the couple's first visit.

“I think they're recycling better,” Gilow said “the pop cans and the bottles-there's less of those.  We've only done four samples so far, but I haven't found any hazardous household waste yet.”

The couple and their partner will pick through Linn County's trash through Friday  and bill the solid waste agency $40,000 for the work.  The agency will have a detailed report to compare to prior years in about four weeks.

The Gilows said it's a dirty job-but somebody's got to do it