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Central Standard

What Happens To All Of Kansas City's Garbage?

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
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Flickr -- Creative Commons

How is it that all 2 million people in and around Kansas City don’t wake up surrounded by garbage every morning?

Think about it, every day 2 million people eat three meals a day; disposing packages, tissues, paper cups and much more throughout the day.

Where does it all go and how does it get managed?

On this Central Standard we do a bit of trash talking with Craig Wood, Solid Waste Management Coordinator of Johnson County; Marleen Leonce, Senior Environmental Officer with the City of Kansas City Missouri; Donald Finley, part of the operations crew of the KCPW department, and Kevin Anderson, of Missouri Organic Recycling.

According to Leonce, the Kansas City metro throws away 90,000 tons of trash every year and nearly 75 percent of that could be recycled. To be more informed about recycling and garbage disposal in the metro, read about the services that our guests mention through the links below.

Resources

Johnson County Household Hazardous Materials Program Johnson County Recycling Program Missouri Organic

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Every part of the present has been shaped by actions that took place in the past, but too often that context is left out. As a podcast producer for KCUR Studios and host of the podcast A People’s History of Kansas City, I aim to provide context, clarity, empathy and deeper, nuanced perspectives on how the events and people in the past have shaped our community today. In that role, and as an occasional announcer and reporter, I want to entertain, inform, make you think, expose something new and cultivate a deeper shared human connection about how the passage of time affects us all. Reach me at hogansm@kcur.org.
Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.