Stutzman answers questions about recycling
Have you ever wondered what happens to that glass bottle, plastic jug, or old newspaper after you place it in that blue bag and take it down to the recycling station?
John Stutzman of Hutchinson and his brother Darrell are co-owners of Stutzman Refuse Disposal, Inc. They also own a recycling plant that picks up Marion's recyclable trash. The City of Marion pays a fee for the service.
John said he enjoys processing recyclables even though he isn't sure if the investment in equipment will ever pay for itself, even with subsidy payments from government units.
The company has been recycling paper for 10 years but got into the full recycling business just two years ago when the recycling company that was serving Hutchinson sold out to them.
They immediately purchased crushing and sorting equipment, which allows five people to do the work that 20 had done before.
The company serves a wide area of Central Kansas as well as Hays. He collects about 200 ton per month.
At the plant in south Hutchinson, cans and bottles are deposited at one end of the building, paper on the other.
Paper is sorted into three piles — cardboard, newspaper, and mixed paper.
The mixed paper is baled and sent to Temco Roofing in Phillipsburg or to the plant in southeast Missouri, where it is made into tar paper or shingles.
Cardboard and newspapers are sent to a company which makes bisquit board and tube rolls for bath tissue, paper towels, and so forth.
Glass — A machine separates glass items from the pile of solid trash, then crushes it and makes it into sand. The Stutzmans use it in their business.
"I believe we're the only place in the state that makes glass into sand," John said. "You can grab it and rub it and it won't hurt you."
Aluminum cans also are automatically sorted and are sold to a scrap dealer. They are more profitable than other trash items. There is always a demand for aluminum cans, while often there is no market for other products.
Tin cans are separated with a magnetic device mounted over a conveyor belt. The tin is baled and sent to steel mills. Stutzman said there is no market for tin at present, so they have to give it to the mills.
Two-liter soda pop jugs are hand-sorted and made into 600-700 pound bales which go to North Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama. The plastic usually is made into carpet fibers, although some goes to Coca Cola to be made into new bottles.
Milk jugs are sorted by hand and formed into 800 pound bales, and shipped to Georgia or Alabama. Some are made into plastic lumber and soap jugs.
John said milk jugs have the best return for jugs, paying for the labor involved in processing them.
Laundry soap jugs and other colored plastics have to be baled separately. The 800 pound bales go to the same place as the milk jugs but are used for a different purpose. They produce a gray plastic when melted down and so are not as valuable.
Styrofoam and plastic bags are two items which end up as trash and go to a landfill. There is no market for them.
John said market prices for recyclables run in cycles and right now, prices are low.
He said recycling comprises about 15 percent of the business. They rely on the fees from the city of Hutchinson to keep it going from month to month.
At the current time, nine employees work in the recycling center from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. People are welcome to visit the plant at 315 S. Blanchard any time.
John said he's not sure why they got into the business of recycling except that they saw that cities were wanting it as part of their solid waste disposal plans.
"The way I look at it, people don't think about it, but they've always paid for trash hauling. Now many people are willing to pay a little extra to provide for recycling."
John was one year old in 1957 when his father began hauling trash. He graduated from Tabor College in 1978. He and his brother took over full operation of the business two years ago.
In some towns, residents pay for curb-side pickup of recyclables. In Marion, a recycling fee of 85 cents is figured into the $11.85 monthly trash fee. Everyone pays whether or not they recycle.
At an average of 820 residences, the city spends about $697 a month or $8,364 a year on recycling. The number of residents using trash service varies from month to month as people move in and out of the city.
The city provides blue bags for recyclables and clear bags for trash, available at the city office. The first two rolls of 50 bags each, annually, are free. There is a charge for additional bags.
According to Becky Makovec, recyclables must be placed in blue bags and must be deposited in bins provided at the entrance to the city water plant on Walnut Street.
She stressed that recyclables deposited in clear bags are not accepted by the recycling truck but are left behind to be picked up by the trash truck, and go directly to the local transfer station for hauling to the landfill near Topeka.
Aluminum cans can be deposited separately in a nearby building provided by the Girl Scouts. Proceeds from sale of the cans go to support local Girl Scout programs.
Rural residents who want to use the recycling bins buy their own bags and pay a $12 yearly fee.
The county is seeking to institute a countywide program in which every home owner would pay a recycling fee, making it mandatory. The fee would be added to property taxes, whether or not the owner or resident would recycle.
