In 2019, the Barton County Commission granted Sunflower Diversified Services $15,000 for recycling. Monday morning, commissioners heard what the county got for that investment. Sunflower Executive Director Jon Prescott gave his annual report, noting successes, despite challenges posed by COVID-19.
“Without your support, it would be very tough,” he said. “It is really appreciated.”
Sunflower processed 3.1 million pounds of recycling materials last year and is on track to process 3.3 this next year. These materials included: plastics, cardboard, aluminum, glass and steel/iron.
“In corrugated cardboard alone in 2020, we have processed over 2 million pounds,” he said. “We feel that this was caused by the COVID season where people were doing so much shopping from home.” Plastics also increased, which caused a storage issue. It takes 49 of their massive Gaylord boxes of plastic bottles to make one 1,500 pound bale. “Therefore, we have purchased a used plastic chipper that allows us to chip the bottles when they come in. And Fuller Brush was really generous with their sale price. A lot less expensive than building another shed to store these until we have 49.”
To maintain the equipment, he said they employ the individuals served and supported by the agency so that they can have an opportunity to have a job and earn a competitive wage. “We added four new clients this last year and all four were hired as additional recycling employees,” Prescott said.
“One of these clients has actually improved his intellectual development to the point that he will be graduating out of our support services and transitioning to regular paid staff position. And this is what sunflower is all about,” he said.
Also, because of the constant growth in community recycling, they created two new staff recycling positions – one in shredding and one in baling.
They had to close in-person recycling at the West 10th Street location to protect clients from the virus, he said. But, due to public outcry, they temporarily reopened it as a self-service location.
“I think people are getting in the habit of recycling,” he said. Perhaps, COVID-19 has spurred this along.
Other highlights:
• Last year, with Rosewood Services starting to process electronic recycling materials, Sunflower agreed to continue collecting those materials but transfer any and all recycling electronics to Rosewood. “This has gone very well,” he said.
“In fact, the volume of electronic materials have dropped off at Sunflower, which indicates that our community understands the electronics are dropped off at Rosewood and all other recyclable materials are dropped off at either our down town community trailer of at our Recycling Center on West 10th.”
• Speaking of the recycling trailer in the old Sears parking lot, “it has been an incredible success for community recycling,” Prescott said.
“It provides a more convenient drop-off location for the east side of town, he said. “We are picking it up and unloading it three to four times each times a week.”
So, they are now in the market for purchasing a second trailer because there are times that the trailer fills up in 24 hours and people set the materials outside the existing one, which can create a problem if it blows away.
• “We are planning to add three more client positions to our community recycling services for calendar year 2020 or fiscal year 2020-2021,” he said.
• Sunflower is also still trying to save some resources to replace two 1994 Box Trucks, one mid 1990s bailer and one late ’80s fork lift.
• In 2018/2019 they lost several business clients after introducing a $12-per-month fee to pick up materials, weekly or semimonthly or monthly. “We felt that it was a nominal fee based on the personal service and because it was saving them trash fees.”
Unfortunately, they dropped from 344 business clients to 313. “However, we have now gained 22 of those back and are now serving 335 with expectations to add 10 to 15 more this next year.”
• Sunflower’s confidential shredding service has also grown. “It has taken some time for our local businesses to realize that there are two advantages to utilizing Sunflower’s confidential shredding service,” Prescott said.
First, they are local, second, they are substantially less expensive than out-of-town competition, and third, the service creates local jobs.
“We have grown from six monthly business shredding clients to 16,” he said. “We also had 73 businesses and individuals that engaged us to come pick up their old files and shred them.”
This volume caused them to retire their late ’90s commercial shredding machine and buy a new one at $18,000. This one activity requires three clients and one staff member to be employed.
• Sunflower’s staff totals 146 with a payroll of around $3 million annually.
• Of Sunflower’s 122 clients, 67 are employed, 47 in recycling. The client payroll comes to $302,351.
• Plans are still in the works for curb-side recycling in Great Bend, Prescott said. By next year, they hope to start a pilot program in the northwest quadrant of town if they can iron out all the details.
Working with Unruh Brothers Trash Service, they plan to charge customers $15 per month for the service.
