By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

Marion will begin curbside recycling in 2015, using its current twice-a-week pickup system, with one pickup designated as a recycling pickup while leaving the other as food and biodegradable waste pickup.

City Administrator Roger Holter approached Marion City Council with a “Bag It, Box It” recycling program, in which citizens will set out bagged waste for one pickup day, and set out their recyclables on the other.

Holter said it’s a reallocation of resources the city is already using, so the city will not incur any additional costs.

Holter said that of the 20-23 tons the city puts in landfills weekly, as much as 60 percent of it could be in single stream recycling.

“When you can take 12 tons of material a week and keep it out of a landfill, it’s the right thing for the long term,” Holter said.

While trash costs $42.50 per ton to process, recycling offers $31 of revenue per ton.

Holter said residents would not have to recycle, but that on one of the weekly pickup dates, only recycling would be picked up.

“This isn’t a mandatory recycling program, if you decide you don’t want to recycle, that’s great,” Holter said. “It’s going to be once a week trash pickup, we’ll pickup whatever.”

Holter said ideally, residents would use cardboard boxes to store recycling, and the whole box could be loaded onto the truck, but any container could be used, and crews will dump the contents into the truck.

Items placed in recycling containers should not be bagged, as processing plastic bags “literally stops the grinders,” Holter said.

In other business:

• Police chief Tyler Mermis introduced the position of a police chaplain, which will be filled on a volunteer basis by Jeremiah Lange.
• Council officially changed its bid reviewing policies. Bids from local businesses will be given priority over lower bids from out-of-county businesses, as long as the bids are 10 percent higher or less. Bids from businesses with local distribution centers will get priority over those without if bids are 5 percent higher or less.
• Special Purpose Vehicle Ordinance 1382 was discussed, with Daryl Enos attending the public forum and questioning the language of the ordinance. A vote on its adoption was deferred to the Nov. 10 council meeting.