Columbia Solid Waste Utility administrators hosted an open house. The event allowed members of the public to ask questions and comment on the future of Columbia鈥檚 recycling program. Columbia city leaders wanted to build a new recycling center at their landfill. An EF-1 tornado destroyed Columbia鈥檚 old material recycling facility on April 20, 2025.
Input from the open house would help the design of Columbia鈥檚 new material recycling facility in the exact same location. Most of the recycling efforts in the old building involved the separation of materials by hand. Plans for the new facility were up in the air. City leaders said they could expand their new recycling center and add more automation.
Columbia Utilities Spokesman Matt Nestor said, 鈥淎 lot of people are looking at step 17 and we鈥檙e on step 2. There are a lot of things we鈥檙e not going to be able to answer tonight. We鈥檙e looking toward the future and getting the building built is that next step.鈥�