Changes could be coming in the future with recycling in Mason City

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City last week held a workshop session to get a preview of the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, and among the proposals was an upgrade to the city’s recycling program.

Councilman & mayor pro-tem Paul Adams says the city wants to move within the next year or two to a fully-automated recycling collection system.  “Trucks are all automated. People are going to get new recycling containers and trash containers and everything, so that’s going to be a significant lift just to get all of that in place. That’s a big thing in this year’s budget. Just to be clear on the automation of the trash collection, we’re not going to eliminate any jobs. We’re going to make sure that’s done through natural attrition and then relocate within the city workforce if we have people there that are still sanitation collectors that are still there when we move to that automated process, so there will be no job reductions done with that.”

Adams says one of the biggest complaints he’s had for years is residents think Mason City’s recycling program is not good.   “Actually one of the biggest complaints I get is how hard it is to recycle in Mason City. I completely understand where people are coming from when they say that because things have to be bundled together and separated, etc. So this will be an improvement, absolutely an improvement, so we’re looking forward to it. It’s been something that’s been on our radar for a couple of years, and it’s going to be a tremendous help for our crew and for our citizens too.”

Adams made his comments on the “Ask the Mayor” podcast which you can listen to by heading here