Nonprofit WICAP getting up to speed at Weiser recycling center

Nearly six weeks after taking over operations at the Evelyn Stover Recycling Center in Weiser, officials with the nonprofit WICAP said things are getting up to speed.

“It’s going along pretty good. It’s a learning process,” said Steve Morningstar, who is the community service coordinator for WICAP in Washington and Adams counties.

Morningstar and WICAP stepped in at the last minute before the recycling center was on the verge of closing indefinitely. WICAP took over management on Oct. 27 with the verbal support of city of Weiser officials and Washington County commissioners.

Morningstar said WICAP would commit to a year of running the center to see how it goes. Having a place to recycle was important for a lot of Weiser and Washington County residents and he offered to run it as a service to the community.

That doesn’t mean there are not some ongoing issues at the center. There are people who dump stuff they are not suppose to in the garbage cans, such as cow carcasses that show up with some frequency. Some who don’t or won’t pay for trash service in the county continue to dump their garbage at the recycling center, filling up the trash cans placed there by the city.

The 24/7 recycling center takes about an hour of work daily to run, depending on the amount of recycled stuff dropped off, Morningstar said. Cardboard must be compressed into bales. Totes that fill up with recycled items must be switched out with the forklift. 

Morningstar hopes there will be a market for plastics in the future, but there is not one now and the Weiser center, like most others, will not accept plastics of any kind. The refusal of China to accept recycled plastics earlier this year in January all but killed the recycling market for plastics in the U.S. 

The Weiser recycling center will take cardboard, paper, newspaper, magazines, paper, tin cans and aluminum cans. It would be helpful if people removed any styrofoam or plastic that might be in the cardboard they drop off. Otherwise, it has to be removed by someone at the recycling center, Morningstar said.

Western Recycling picks up all the recycled items at the center every Wednesday. The volume is picking up, especially with the amount of cardboard. The center is baling and shipping four bales a week and each one weighs from 780 to 1,000 pounds.

Morningstar said he plans to work with the school district and businesses to get their cardboard to the center for recycling. Right now, WICAP does not plan to go out around town and pick up cardboard, which was previously done.

Morningstar is the community service coordinator in Washington and Adams counties. The nonprofit offers social services in the communities it serves. In Weiser, the office runs a number of programs, including a food bank and thrift store.

Prior to WICAP stepping in to operate the recycling center, volunteers with the Weiser River Resource Council ran the center for four years. WRRC officials ended management of the recycling center on Sept. 26, citing the difficulty of getting volunteers, the need to provide workman’s comp for the volunteers and other issues. 

The city agreed to continue to pay the monthly electric bill and provided free trash receptacles and pickup at the recycling center. The city council approved and also agreed to help out with keeping the forklift operating. 

Washington County commissioners also threw their support behind WICAP taking over recycling operations at the Weiser location. In the event recycled commodity prices are low, the county has budgeted about $3,600 to help defray the costs of running the recycling operation.

The recycling center is informally a city and county venture. The city owns the property the center sits on and a forklift. The county owns the canopy roof over the recycling center.

In Washington County, the Weiser WICAP office offers social services and a number of programs, including a food bank and thrift store.