DOINews: BLM Helps Initiate Local Recycling Effort in Montana

Many people in Fort Benton, Mont., have a strong recycling ethic. So much so that, until recently, most folks around town would save up their materials, gather more from their friends or co-workers, and take them to a recycling facility in Great Falls – about 40 miles away.

Connie Jacobs, director of the Upper Missouri River Breaks Interpretive Center, was recycling her own materials that way – in addition to picking up recyclables from the Interpretive Center offices. Often her own truck would be "stuffed to the gills" for Saturday recycling runs into Great Falls. Jokingly, Jacobs said the final straw was when she did not have enough room to take her dogs along on one of her recycling runs. It was then that she decided to find a way to develop a local recycling initiative.

Members of the Fort Benton recycling crew, led by Connie Jacobs, Director of the Upper Missouri River Breaks Interpretive Center (right). Photo by BLM.

Jacobs was able to use some funding from the Bureau of Land Management's Montana/Dakotas State Office to begin working with an intern on a local recycling effort, and steps were taken to determine whether recycling was something local people and businesses wanted. From surveys and conversations, the answer was a resounding "yes." Thus a community meeting was held, and from that meeting a group of dedicated individuals organized to develop a local recycling pilot program. The amounts were quite surprising: In the first four months, 18,000 pounds of recyclables were collected and taken to Great Falls, all with the volunteers' own cars, trailers, and trucks.

Seeing a need for improved transport, Jacobs again turned to the BLM for help, and was able to secure additional funding to purchase the first trailers for Fort Benton Recycles – a used cargo trailer and a used horse trailer. Since the BLM did not have all the funds needed for the trailers, the local Chamber of Commerce contributed the difference and assumed ownership through its existing partnership with the BLM.

Over the course of the pilot project and the following summer, Fort Benton and Chouteau County residents (including the Interpretive Center) recycled more than 40,000 pounds of materials. Collected items are taken to the recycling center in Great Falls, and the proceeds are used for trailer maintenance, reimbursing volunteers for gas costs, and matching funds for various grant applications.

Volunteers from the Fort Benton community prepare a load of recycling for transport to Great Falls. Photo by BLM.

Because so many materials were coming from Fort Benton, the recycler in Great Falls offered to provide bins for the community to eliminate the twice-monthly trips with trailers. This, along with the City of Fort Benton offering some city property, is a significant step toward developing a permanent recycling facility.

"The folks in Fort Benton are grateful for all the help that BLM has offered toward the recycling effort," Jacobs said. "Eventually I would like to see other communities join in or cooperate with Fort Benton and develop something the entire county can take advantage of. That's a win-win for BLM, for the local residents and for our landscape."

As of late summer 2014, the program had accounted for 57,000 pounds of recycling – and counting.

By: BLM-Montana/Dakotas
Nov. 21, 2014

BLM-Montana/Dakotas