Carroll County Solid Waste Management Commission

In 1969, work began in Carroll County to comply with a new state law addressing solid waste disposal. This law said that "every city, town and county of this state shall provide for the establishment and operation of a sanitary disposal project for final disposal of solid waste by its residents not later than the first of July 1975." As many municipalities within Carroll County were then operating their own "garbage dumps", the new law was of considerable concern. The cities in Carroll County would begin the process to move from the open dumps to one site within the county.

The Carroll County Regional Planning and Zoning Commission voted to start the Carroll County Solid Waste Management Commission in October, 1969. The Commission continues to be operated according to the provisions of the Chapter 28E of the Code of Iowa that was established at that time.

In June 1972, 157 acres of land located west of Carroll was purchased by the Commission for a county wide disposal area. Throughout the years additional land has been purchased that will serve as a future area for solid waste disposal.

The original sanitary disposal area opened in 1973 and consisted of about 40 acres that would be used for burying solid waste. From 1973 to 1987, the landfill business did not change very much. Two legislative changes in the late 1980's brought changes to the way solid waste was handled.

The 1987 Groundwater Protection Act changed operations at all landfills across Iowa. Additional groundwater monitoring was required along with stricter operating requirements. In 1989, the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act required that every city and county in Iowa establish a recycling program to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills by 25% by 1994 and by 50% by 2000. The 25% waste reduction goal later turned into a mandate with a financial penalty attached for not meeting the required goal. The West Central Iowa Solid Waste Management Association comprised of Carroll, Crawford, Guthrie, Shelby Counties along with part of Calhoun County and several other cities have reduced their waste by 30% accordingly to the Department of Natural Resources latest calculation.

The Commission's recycling center opened in November 1990. Recyclable materials are currently processed from the members of the West Central Iowa Solid Waste Management Association. In the last fiscal year, over 5,900 ton of materials were sorted, processed and shipped to manufacturers and made into new products such as paper, cardboard, glass, steel cans, plastic, lumber and clothing.