The City of Columbia wants to determine how much residents use drop-off recycling centers. To do that, it鈥檚 conducting surveys at four of the city鈥檚 12 centers.
Ben Kreitner, waste minimization coordinator for the city, said the project was made possible by the interns who cataloged previous data into Excel over the summer. Prior to their data entry work, the recycling numbers for the city had been stored in file cabinets on sheets of paper.
鈥淲e have data going back to 1989,鈥� Kreitner said. 鈥淭hat could make for some interesting graphs.鈥�
But the major concern, Kreitner said, is figuring out what recycling is originating from inside Columbia鈥檚 city limits versus what鈥檚 being brought in from outside.
Until this survey, that discrepancy hadn鈥檛 been investigated.
鈥淎 lot of the numbers that newspapers are using aren鈥檛 that accurate,鈥� Kreitner said. 鈥淲e wanted to do actual surveying data, because anything reported in the past could be inaccurate.鈥�
The survey began Oct. 2 and ends Saturday, according to the city website.
Kreitner said the project is based around two questions: whether residents who are recycling live in a house or an apartment and whether they live inside the city, inside Boone County or outside the county.
鈥淚f someone from Fulton drives here to recycle, that鈥檚 obviously not Columbia鈥檚 waste,鈥� he said.
He said the survey has already found people from outside the city using the Columbia recycling sites. Columbia, he said, is viewed as the recycling center for all of mid-Missouri.
Once the data from city containers is collected, Kreitner said it will be used as a representative sample to determine the locations of waste that originates from inside the city versus outside it. They鈥檒l then calculate a percentage that will allow the city to set long-term recycling goals.
鈥淥nce we know (the city鈥檚 recycling percentage), we can actually set goals,鈥� he said. 鈥淐urrently, we don鈥檛 have that set up.鈥�
Although the data will be used to determine Columbia鈥檚 recycling percentage, Kreitner wants to make it clear this survey isn鈥檛 meant to criticize people bringing in their waste from outside the city.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to discourage anyone or tell anyone from outside that they鈥檙e doing it wrong,鈥� he said.
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