General Information:

The Abilene Recycling Center is located at 1210 NW 8th Street. Various recyclable products and yard waste for processing compost are accepted. Free compost is occasionally available. 

The City of Abilene and OCCK want to remind residents to please make every effort to empty, clean and adequately sort their recyclable items before arriving.   

We accept aluminum beverage cans, tin cans, #1 and #2 plastics only, newspapers, corrugated cardboard, pressed cardboard, glass, magazines and other slicks. 

THE RECYCLING CENTER'S NEW OPERATING HOURS ARE: 

Tuesday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Saturday from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

We accept limbs up to 8" in diameter for the woodchipper; the brush is taken on the 

1st & 3rd Saturdays from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Abilene Recycling Center Facebook

Dickinson County Landfill Website

The History of the Abilene Recycling Center 

& Our Partnership with OCCK 

The City of Abilene and OCCK updated their contract for the Abilene Recycling Center. This update to the agreement primarily changed their hours of operation. Beginning January 2, the Abilene Recycling Center will be open Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and Saturday from 8 am to 2 pm. This change in hours allows the employees from OCCK to utilize public transportation both to and from work. Previously, they would have been required to find other means of transportation when leaving work at 6 pm.  

In the early 90s, some individuals came together to try to create a recycling center. While this group had great intentions, there needed to be a real organization. At this time, the City Commission decided to move forward with a city-owned Recycling Center. At this time, Cliff Gibbs, Public Works Director, was tasked with making this facility an idea come to fruition. At this point, there were very few publicly owned recycling centers in Kansas, so he referenced one at Fort Riley and even a municipality in Missouri just to get ideas.  

On October 1, 1994, the original 7,425 sq. ft. building opened for business. The city quickly realized that this building did not allow room to store baled material, and a 2,500 sq. ft. addition was added within the first year of business. For the first 15 years, full-time Public Works staff staffed the recycling center entirely.

In 2009, an OCCK representative, Steve Gieber, approached Allen Dinkel, Abilene’s City Manager, to suggest a possible partnership to employ OCCK staff at the center. For the next three years, OCCK & Public Works employee, George Kleinsorge, staffed the recycling center jointly. Upon George’s retirement, the contract was renegotiated, and OCCK officially took charge of all the daily staffing and operations. Today, Abilene Area OCCK Coordinator Jenny Richardson oversees the staffing needs. The city owns the building and manages the machinery and maintenance of the machinery and building and the processing part of the compost. Public Works Director Lon Schrader makes the arrangements for when materials need to be sold.

The recycling center gets its funding from a flat charge from all water customers. The baled and processed material is either sold directly to manufacturing plants in the Central US that utilize recycled materials in their products or is sold to a large recycling company in Kansas City, MO. Revenue from the sale of these materials also helps fund the center's operation. They have also received Solid Waste Management Grants, administered by the KDHE-SWM division, to purchase a new woodchipper and forklift. The center is visited by an average of 25-30 users daily and processes 320-350 tons of recycled material annually.

"You Can Make a Difference"

Abilene Recycling Center - Public Outreach and Education Program

You might ask, "Should I save my glass bottles and jars to recycle?"

In the United States, about 1/3 of all container glass is recycled. About 80% of recovered glass containers are made into new glass containers. It happens quickly. The glass bottles you bring and drop off at the Recycling Center can be processed and back on your store shelf in as little as 30 days.

Glass can be recycled endlessly.

For every 6 tons of recycled glass used in making new containers, carbon dioxide discharge is reduced by one ton.

Other uses for recycled glass are fiberglass insulation, furnace filters and glass beads used for pavement markings.

Window glass and ovenware/Pyrex glass should not be mixed with container glass.

Last year the Abilene Recycling Center received and processed 72,000 pounds of glass.

Public Works Employees load and haul the crushed glass to Stutzman Recycling in South Hutchinson, Kansas.