Greg Bennett, Purdy Recycling Center volunteer, explains how the oil from discarded, crushed oil filters is used to power the furnace, which heats the building. Sheila Harris/ sheilaharrisads@gmail.com
Gerry Wass, left, and Greg Bennett prepare to remove a bale of discarded cardboard from one of four balers at the Purdy Recycling Center. Sheila Harris/sheilaharrisads@ gmail.com
Volunteer Bob Vice prepares to dump discarded aluminum cans into a crusher at the Purdy Recycling Center. Sheila Harris/sheilaharrisads@gmail.com
Greg Bennett, Purdy Recycling Center volunteer, explains that the glass bottles accepted for recycling must be nonopaque. Sheila Harris/ sheilaharrisads@ gmail.com
Purdy recycling program creates model for other communities
BY SHEILA HARRIS sheilaharrisads@gmail.com
Started from scratch 20 years ago by a handful of school students and their instructor, the Purdy Recycling Center has evolved from a school project into a community-wide enterprise.
Gerry Wass, former Purdy Schools Spanish teacher and Spanish Club shepherd, has trouble getting his head around the recycling program’s 20-year milestone.
“In 2006, the school’s Spanish Club needed a project, something that would raise a little money for club expenses, while serving the community at the same time,” Wass said. “I didn’t know anything about recycling, but I knew that Purdy didn’t have a recycling center, so I thought it might be a program we could get started.”
After a little how-to research (which included consulting with the Monett Recycling Center), Wass and the members of the Spanish Club put out the word that the club would be accepting the community’s cast-offs. Trash soon began to trickle — then pour — into the club’s designated makeshift recycling area, where it was sorted by category (glass, paper, cardboard and metal) into large cardboard totes.
The operation was a bit primitive at first, Wass recalls.
“Marvin Kearney, with the road district, brought a pavement roller up to the parking lot to flatten the aluminum cans, then we shoveled them up and took them to Joplin to sell them,” Wass said.
“I think we made a profit of $147 our first year,” Wass said.
The second year, the club received a grant for the recycling program’s first baler, an improvement which led to the need for a building to house the equipment in.
In 2008, the recycling program received a $26,000 grant from Region N Solid Waste Management for that purpose.
The club, under Wass’s direction and with permission from the powers that be, constructed a 2,500-square-foot metal building adjacent to the school’s ball field, a location that, after footings were poured, met with some objections.
“We had a few people worried by the possibility that a recycling center might result in a smelly eyesore next to the ball field,” Wass said.
The concerns proved to be unfounded.
The recycling building not only houses a tidy operation, but the 22 solar panels installed on its roof (courtesy of another grant) provide power for the structure’s lights and machinery, plus the school’s electronic billboard.
The interior of the building is heated by a furnace that runs on spent motor oil, harvested from crushed, discarded oil filters.
In the years since its inception, the revenue generated by the recycling program has increased, although fluctuations in cardboard prices do occur, Wass said.
“One year, when cardboard prices were $135 per ton, we sold 31,000 pounds for our largest yield ever,” Wass said.
The program marked its 10th anniversary in 2016, also the year it reached the milestone of salvaging 1 million pounds of recyclable material.
During the program’s first decade, proceeds went toward new playground equipment for the school and provided scholarships to graduating seniors. The program also formed the basis for a school class on recycling.
Over the years, Purdy’s recycling program has received numerous grants and awards, including a $20,000 grant from Community Foundation of The Ozarks, a $1,000 grant from the American Paper Institute and the $10,000 Sea World/Busch Garden Environmental Excellence Award, which included an expense-paid trip to Orlando, Florida, for the students who traveled to collect the award.
Wass has since retired from the Purdy school district, as has Robert Vice, former high school principal. Both men, however, continue to volunteer at the recycling center.
“We’re having too much fun,” Wass said. “Why would we quit?”
Longtime Purdy resident Greg Bennett is another invaluable volunteer, who, according to Wass, just wandered in off the street sometime after the program’s inception and asked Wass if he needed a hand.
“He’s been helping with the program ever since,” Wass said.
Bennett, who worked in the grocery business for years, had background experience with recycling. He offers a solid tip on how to keep smells at bay in the building.
“Make sure the lids are off the plastic milk jugs before you bring them in for crushing,” Bennett said. “And rinsing them out is a plus, too.”
Bennett offers tours of the recycling center to interested parties, beginning with the computer on which records are kept. The mishmash compilation of components from discarded computers donated to the recycling center, then turned into one working instrument, is the result of a labor of love by a tech guru.
“We love digging through old computers,” Bennett said. “Bring them in.”
Outside, a trailer awaits the input of discarded glass bottles.
“We only take non-opaque glass,” Bennett said. “Ceramics and glass dishes are okay, but we don’t want them in bags or boxes.”
Paper, metal and plastic must meet certain requirements, too.
“We can’t use cardboard or containers with food residue on them,” Bennett said, displaying the greasy underside of a pizza box. “And rinse out cans before donating them.”
The labels on cans are not a problem, Bennett said.
The recycling center cannot use wrapping paper with foil embossing, but Christmas lights, Bennett said, are acceptable.
The recycling center now operates independently of the school system – and has for several years – but willing students still volunteer their time to the program.
Wass is looking at ways to reorganize the recycling program’s business model in order to turn volunteers into paid employees. Compensate them for their labor, in other words.
“It wouldn’t be much,” he said.
Wass said the program is in need of more volunteers, so offering a bit of financial incentive might be the answer, although he emphasizes that his idea is still a work in progress at this point.
In addition to students, he encourages community-minded adults to join the project, which sees an average of a dozen volunteers.
Greg Bennett said he enjoys working with the student volunteers.
“They take their jobs seriously,” he said. “Sometimes, I have to tell them to slow down and take a break.”
The recycling center, situated just south of the Purdy school district’s electronic billboard on State Highway C, now houses four balers, crushers, conveyors and sorting containers, and offers plenty of work for those volunteering.
Wass said the program receives regular cardboard donations from several Monett industries. Enough to make one or two 1,100-pound bales of cardboard every week, he said.
Plastics, such as milk jugs and water bottles, are also baled, he said.
“We’re looking at the possibility of accepting appliances in the near future,” Bennett said.
After sorting and crushing, the program’s recyclables are sold to Marck Industries in Cassville and to Triple P Recycling in Monett.
Natalie Moseley, Region N Planner for Southwest Missouri Solid Waste Management, said Purdy’s recycling program is unique among programs in the state.
With its initial student-run, school-based model, the Purdy Recycling Center was also unique in the nation.
The program’s expansion from school-based to community-based and supported speaks highly of its popularity.
Moseley doesn’t want the program’s attributes to go unsung.
“They’ve turned tons of waste into thousands of dollars and created a model for other [communities] and schools to use for their own recycling programs,” she said.
Wass is happy to share how-to information with interested parties.
The Purdy Recycling Center is open for donations and operations every Tuesday, 3:30-5:30 p.m., as well as the third Saturday of every month, 8:30-10:30 a.m.
For more information, people may visit the Purdy Recycling Project’s Facebook page.
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