Recycling grants could save taxpayers money

Lawmakers overwhelmingly
approved increasing recycling grants

Nothing cheap about running La Crosse’s recycling program.  

It costs a couple million dollars for the whole refuse and recycling enterprise in the city.  

And, La Crosse may be in line for some extra state money thanks to a move by Wisconsin lawmakers.  

Tuesday, the state senate overwhelmingly approved increasing recycling grants to local governments, potentially offsetting cuts made to those grants just a few years ago.  

“We depend on the recycling grant to offset some of our cost for, obviously, running a recycling  program, running the yard waste drop-off site,” says public works director Dale Hexom said.

Hexom says any increase in recycling grants from the state would lower the local tax burden for the programs.

“Your recycling grants over the years,” Hexom said, “we’ve depended on to help offset those costs. So any reduction causes some issues.”

The state funding could mean tens of thousands of dollars for the city, for curbside recycling, as well as yard waste.

“It’s not only the cans and bottles and containers, it is also the tons of grass clippings, the tons of leaves, our fall leaf collection program is (all) part of that recycling,” Hexom said.

State grants in the past have funded up to 10 percent of city’s refuse and recycling budget of over $2 million.