This fall, school-wide recycling programs are being launched at Kalispell Middle School, Flathead High School, and Glacier High School. New, large blue-box recycling containers have been placed in each of these schools’ parking lots to meet high-volume need there, and are open to the public for use as well.
The new programs are a result of a partnership between the City of Kalispell, Flathead County Solid Waste District, the WasteNot Project and Evergreen Disposal/Valley Recycling. A survey of county schools by the WasteNot Project several years ago showed that transporting huge bins of items collected for recycling to recycling centers was the schools’ biggest obstacle to recycling. By bringing the bins to the schools, the groups hope to build recycling campaigns at each location and save space in the county landfill.
The types of materials that can be recycled include cardboard, all types of paper, #1 and #2 plastics, aluminum and tins cans. Recycling drop-off sites in Kalispell also remain at Albertson’s Grocery Store at US Highway 2 and Meridian, behind the old Tidyman’s Grocery Store and behind Tire Rama just south of Kalispell on US 93.
The public, organizers stress, has an important role to play in keeping these school drop-off sites clean, so that the program can continue. Materials dropped off for recycling should never be placed on the ground if a container is full and overflow material should be dropped off at Valley Recycling. Businesses are asked to contract with a local recycling firm for direct pick up or to take recyclable material directly to area recycling centers, because their volume of materials could quickly overwhelm these school sites.