By JOHN E. WEARE
KAB
Two generations ago Alliance shopping opportunities spread beyond the downtown core. Between the north/south highways flanking the city, drivers would encounter Kmart, Alco and Pamida along Highway 2. Forty years later the structures remain though with different signs: Bloedorns, Goodwill/Family Dollar Dollar Tree, and Carter’s Home, Hardware & Appliance. All four entities are prime examples of how to reuse a building with current owners and management who embrace recycling.
The companies listed above have all been chronicled in this space over the past few years, yet the group exemplifies a local trend: progressive recycling. This label applies to businesses who may target one material, or not even recycle initially, then expand the scope and efficiency of the process over months or even years. Keep Alliance Beautiful coordinates to best serve each participating business. Family Dollar, for example, went from three IBC totes to filling a two-axle flatbed trailer every week. Bloedorns is the latest case as the store moved into the former Big K building last month.
Ever since I started at the recycling center five years ago (and for some time before) we would pick up cardboard from two totes at Bloedorns. Like other businesses, the timing had to do with when they’d unload their supply truck. The 4x4x4 white cubes often held long boxes jutting out of the top as well as relatively tiny boxes on the bottom that had held nails, screws and other hardware. Those totes will be absorbed back into our supply now that management is utilizing a baler that came with the new property. More than a dozen bales of cardboard have arrived at our facility this autumn as they set up the store.
Volumes keep growing at KAB with corrugated/paperboard cardboard far and away the majority (by weight) of the recyclables we ship out. That fact makes me appreciative that Bloedorns’ expansion has not translated into more work for our crew. The company has opted to retain our Keep America Beautiful affiliate as its preferred outlet to recycle rather than sending the cardboard out on its own trucks to be marketed elsewhere as other local stores/companies do. We simply secure the bales to our standards, then weigh and stack them like bales produced in house. Cardboard is among the handful of materials we process worth something per ton on our end.
I am not sure what else Bloedorns could divert from its waste stream however other customers are exploring their options. Last week I delivered a roll of Hefty ReNew orange bags to the Post Office to hold dew wrap from pallets – they had already saved two carts worth. Jelinek Custom Cleaning parted with 88 plastic pallets and we have more stacks to retrieve as time allows. Anytime a business finds it worth their while to deliver cardboard, etc., we often hear a thank you and a “Hey do you take . . . ?”
Naturally, some longtime patrons move or discontinue use of our receptacles. I am excited though to see sustained growth. As 2024 comes to a close, KAB added three more locations in Hemingford alone. Recycling is worth the time and effort. Before you throw it all away ponder the possibilities for the new year – rethink, reuse, reduce, recycle.