Keokuk County Supervisors Recycle Waste Management Contract

Sigourney, Iowa- The ongoing debate over who will service Keokuk County residents for garbage and recycling services took another turn on June 25 as the Keokuk County Supervisors took action on a one-year agreement with Waste Management. Currently, Waste Management has the exclusive rights and contract to handle all waste and recycling services for rural residents in the County. In the past, Keokuk County and Waste Management have entered into three-year contracts. The previous contract is due to expire this year and Waste Management has been working to negotiate a new agreement with Keokuk County. 

 

As reported in the May 30 News-Review, in recent weeks, Keokuk County has been in discussions with First Resources to potentially have First Resources assume waste and recycling services. Talks had proceeded forward to where the Supervisors were set to consider entering into an agreement with First Resources at the May 29 Board of Supervisors meeting, however at that time County Attorney John Schroeder indicated that a few glitches, namely red tape in the form of required permits that would delay the process by at least 4-6 months, came up and the County had to defer at that time on approving an agreement while First Resources and the County work through those issues. Since then, the board has discussed their options, which culminated in a brief meeting with Dave Schaab, of Waste Management, on June 25 to discuss a one-year agreement.

 

While no mention of a potential agreement with First Resources was mentioned publicly, Schaab stated that it is Waste Management’s preference to go to a one-year contract as well due to new developments in the recycling industry. 

 

“Recycling is just tanking,” he said. “Mostly 30 percent of what we collect at the curb, at one point, went to China. Well China got real finnicky about that. They said ‘well we don’t want to be the dumping spot for the world,’” he added.

 

For more on this story and others, cath the June 27 edition of the News-Review.

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