John Roosa, Administrator, Boone County Landfill and Recycling, March 4, 2026

Joined today by the legendary John Rosa from the Boone County landfill Good morning. How are you? I am Adequate adequate. You know, you're the goat Adequate the adequate goat. Hey here we are. How excited are we looking for rain?

Boy, I'm guessing it's already been a little bit on the Soft side in the landfill because it wasn't a lot of frost or things like that I mean, yeah, it was a little cold back there in the end of January But otherwise way above normal temperatures February and yeah, it's it's nice to enjoy those 60 degree days But that just makes for a much longer mud season at the landfill So it's it's always a problem get the melting of the snow get a little rain with our Soil the way it is out there be an extra clay based that it's extra slimy and squishy and all the Challenges that go with that so dealing with you know people getting stuck on an occasional basis that you know I listen to the radio chatter about who's what's going on and how?

Is it four-wheel drive only and and that type of a thing at the face?

And how accessible it is so, you know, you got to have that Keep that in mind if you're if you're listening and you wonder if you'd like to take your own stuff out to the landfill if You bring a bigger load you may have to go down to the work face And so keep that in mind that if that happens if that's what's deemed What's necessary to go there to unload that it's gonna be gooey and it's gonna be slick and slimy and Yeah, just not perfect just not ideal I guess so tell me about your about the staff because now Do they do a lot of it do they keep you informed?

These are the conditions we're looking at we'd like to shift this way do these things because they've been doing it for a while They know how this works and we're up high.

We do have some skills with this Yeah, the experience certainly helps to try to prevent some of those issues But yes, they radio they'll open up in their area and then if they you know, if it's just too much if it's not Conducive enough for traffic Four-wheel drive only you know for regular customers anyway the bigger trucks they'll do what they can and you know try to if it on rock and try to make it accessible and do what they can to accommodate traffic down at the work face But you know trying to do what they can we do have a digital display sign up there so we you know put that information out so people are aware and and our attendant always gives that advice to about what they're able to do if you have four-wheel drive and Yeah, just maybe some of the problems ahead we always you know, it's kind of a The question that comes up sometimes when we get the phone call comes in and customer will ask is like well It is it is it wet?

Well if it rained, yes, you know it's not to be Not like yeah, it's going to be we don't have any other options and then they'll ask, you know do you think I'll get stuck and My response lately has just been yes I do you know if you if you think it is if you think it's going to be muddy and soupy and nasty and Slimy and stuff that down there that you know guy if you think you might get stuck.

Yeah, you probably will get stuck I guess the self-fulfilling prophecy possibly with that. So Some of the yeah challenge is a that's landfill operations. You're not the only one. That's right You know, yeah, there are a lot of others that deal with it, too.

So well, of course The recycling part we're into moving towards springtime literally not that far away actually Yeah, and that means we're getting back to in April we hit April You're gonna have like the first Saturday will people be able to start taking advantage Once again to coming out dropping off things for the household drop-off Yeah, and that's you just do it for a couple hours every Saturday mornings Works pretty good for a lot of people and then you get back to scheduling appointments because Metro makes rick more frequent visits Yes, yeah Shut down time kind of the cold season and not take those hazardous materials, but we do open up the first Saturdays of the month the household hazardous waste collection option at the at the landfill so under regular opening hours on the Saturday and Try to shut it down a little bit early so we can get things closed up and sorted and taking care of but First Saturdays we got April 4th that'll kick off And then we do it the first Saturday somewhere a couple of things you want on the road Throughout the year, but otherwise it's at the landfill yes, and you mentioned the appointments and calling ahead and Again, if the Saturday doesn't work out for you and you don't wait till the next one Just come give us a call and then we can set up a time to where have someone available to meet with you and Take that material off your hands and get it stored safely at our satellite building at the landfill.

So That's what and what hazardous materials are we talking about?

We're not talking about hazardous materials like asbestos or something like that We're talking more about the household hazardous waste in your home and that's chemicals and cleaners oil-based paint paint thinner Break fluid, you know If you're doing a clean out of a garage or something like that and you're getting rid of a lot of things Don't just dump them Some of those chemicals mixed together can be really bad.

Don't pour them down your drains.

Don't dump in your yard Don't do a lot of things with those instead get a get a hold of us and make sure we can We can let you know if we'll be able to accept those things in the household hazardous waste Program but and then you can set up an appointment to drop those things off.

I'm guessing for some folks if they had some things that You know didn't quite have all that weed killer or stuff all taken care of last fall This spring if you are do using something like that Feel free unless you left it out like in an unheated or you know, yeah, and it froze over the winter and stuff That's probably sometimes it loses its effectiveness if it freezes and yeah if you left it in that Environment and maybe it's not good anymore, but you know, you could still try it I guess if it's not harmful to the environment, but yeah, you know a lot of those things that we get brought in to the facility is You know half used gallons of Roundup or whatever it might be, you know Maybe it's still good and you could use put that to use but you know if it's been frozen.

Yeah, maybe it's not but Certainly would encourage putting it to use rather than Even bring it to the hazardous waste facility because it's going to just get Burnt up it's going to be just disposed of so Putting it to use is always the best option instead of just dumping it just that's just a thought again I know you try to convince people.

Yeah, if you cannot at all use it up.

Yeah Yeah, but some people or if they're going in and cleaning up someplace or something like that Obviously they get a little bigger load then more than likely making an appointment It probably works a little better than showing up on a Saturday.

Yeah Saturday entrances the will be the second gate That's the recycling and then we try to limit on how much so we've had the you know Bring us, you know three containers full, you know tubs full boxes full something like that Anything more than that gets to be a lot because we don't we have a limited storage space and then we have to hold on to that stuff until Metro waste authority can come and Get that cleaned out for us.

So if you have a big truckload just We'll tell people to take that directly to the facility down at Bondurant Not not terrible drive.

I mean it's not the most convenient, but also it's Way to get rid of all your materials and it's if our residents still free of charge just like it is at our drop-off area All right Tell me about your concrete bunker.

You're kind of looking at this is something that I know you kind of kept the supervisors a little updated What's going on? But now you do have a purpose for this thing. Yeah, it kind of Showed up.

I guess we got some phone calls about it I didn't want a company was getting rid of this Radio tower down in Madrid and then this concrete building they were needed to dispose of and start asking a few questions about what's wrong with It's actually structurally still pretty sound it's you know in good shape overall they brought in on a big trailer brought in a crane because I said we wanted to look at doing something else with it and the idea would be to Be able to have a facility that we can store batteries in temporarily We don't want to hold on to them long term But working with a company that we we do we need to be able to handle those on a short term and you know If you're aware of any batteries The education that goes on behind it is you know, they're they're wonderful.

They're helpful there But they're everywhere and they're also a problem when you want to dispose of them So what should you do with your old batteries and we've been for a few years now?

We've been taking all of them all batteries collected Now we have a facility where we can store them in a little more safely and the ones that are a concern of the bulging ones the lithium-ion batteries that are Banks for your you know the inner power bank for your phones for charging those again Is a common one but just any of them that's a rechargeable battery that is compromised and compromised being opened a little bit Popped open swollen if it's hot, that's really a concern.

But what do you do with those?

We want them out of your house well, okay, then we bring to landfill and we've been storing them in our offices for a while, but Once it doesn't make sense, but if they're hot, we've been putting them in a bucket of sand outside to try to do it better But we need a place.

So, you know, it's not like Yeah, if our place burns down that's better.

No, that's still a problem So we took this concrete building set on a concrete pad over by our yard waste area a little ways away from it So with the idea that okay, we can store our batteries in there If someone calls and says they got this battery that's hot bulging you what can they do with it and get it out to us ASAP and then we'll have buckets of sand to put it in to manage that as much as we can and ultimately if the concrete building catches on fire For one it didn't cost us anything.

It was placed there, but also it shouldn't be much harm to it either so it's in a spot where there's a setback area and it's as safe as we could probably get it and be reasonable about where it is in the flow of traffic and all those things so Giving it a shot thought well with no harm here.

Let's just take this concrete building now let's modify it and try to make it a little bit better and So when we had those batteries being stored temporarily, it's Minimal risk I guess frankly is what we're looking at so for people for the Boone County landfill anyway And we started this you did start this a couple years ago Just saying ABC all batteries all of them all batteries collected and again used to be where yeah I'll just show your alkaline ones away and that sort of thing but eventually You get plenty of fires out there.

Yes, and you also are have a great methane source I Really flammable. Let's yeah, that's bad a few fires, and you've had some even in the recycling area.

Yep We sure have you you know batteries and people think batteries are recyclable and a lot of information out there and they are you know but not in the household recycling program so People throw those away often we'll get those out But you know if we run over them We don't see them.

It's in a container whatever and then you pop those open and you pretty much instantly get fires going And that's a problem.

So yeah, we we just trying to get them all and the purpose of that is still it's not helpful to Recycle those alkaline batteries not I mean you get very minimal recyclable material out of an old alkaline battery the old double a single you know the triple A's the nine volts all those There's not much material to collect in it But the purpose is let's take them all and let's try to eliminate the confusion because they start looking the same They're made on the same a lot of the same colors the same sizes of style summer Rechargeable some are not there's different mixtures of chemicals There's it's a headache You try to figure out which one it is and the print gets a little bit smaller as you get older and it's harder to see And determine what it says on there, so just bring them to us and let us deal with them And we'll try to manage that as much as we can our purpose get them out of the house households for safety sake and then also we can try to mitigate the Fire potential either in the recycling building or in the landfill and neither one of them is good at all So I know it's concerned for haulers too when they're picking up the garbage and then they get If a battery is thrown into their container it gets dumped and then it gets compressed And when it's exposed to air that becomes the problem and fires can start and take off really quickly on their vehicles It can happen at the landfill that could happen recycling building just a lot of potential Hazard with it, so we try to do what we can to Assist with the proper disposal it does again We do the best we can yeah, and I try to come up in this particular case a Literally this concrete building became available yeah that helped out and yeah, we can make use of it Yep, and it's just a temporary storage until we can get them out down the road to where someone can Dismantle and recycle what they can with it, so yeah, it's a safe storage of it.

That's what we're looking for There's a lot and anybody who has a power wheel or anything like that their kids You've got the big batteries and though those are specifically those are like the big guy Watch those yep Plenty all right.

We're getting close to us with springtime coming course gonna have some yard waste coming up still folks We need remember we're on a Thursday Friday Saturday Schedule that that's what we do, but it's gonna be what in April right yep mid April So this actually would it usually it's the 15th is when it kicks off as a mid April date, but this that week It's the 16th instead so the Thursday Friday Saturday, so that week kicks off the 16th, and then it'll go through the end of May and Again, the Thursday Fridays and Saturdays of those weeks, so you mentioned Saturdays also in there.

We are back to our regular landfill hours non Wintertime hours starting in March so this Saturday We will start that off with being open all those Saturdays for just general operations, and then the free yard waste During that April mid April through the end of May so and that's kind of one of those on the Saturday mornings for those that Don't follow along Because you do close early, so you'd like to try to get them in there like by 11 I think it is or something like that yeah Because then you close up early and you got to get everything Open down open Saturdays 8 to 11 So yeah, then we still have to get for the landfill side of things to get the garbage covered up and get closed up and Be done for the days.

We're gonna have the announcements coming out soon remember two by fours are not Things like that again.

We have to go go through that every year if it grows it goes It's kind of the comment that goes with the grew in your yard And garden community art and that type of thing, but yeah two by fours did not even though They're all wood or whatever you know that there's just some issues with that So we did have the February obviously February the unseasonably pleasant temperature in February And a lot of people were really getting into the mode there yep So and I know they were can we take you this talk to the land well But there's still a charge at that time right yep.

Yeah, so the yard waste program doesn't stop it's just It's available year-round, but it's just free during certain times of the years to trying to End the caveat is free. That's free to bring it out there and drop it off It's still cost to take care of all that got to do that.

Yeah, yeah, and those are the challenges we face all right I didn't want to ask about a couple of your projects going on the force main project I know that's been one that we were hoping to get pretty close to bidding time on here. How's it look? It's coming along.

There's this constant little hurdles to go through of permits and making sure it locates and just a lot of the Details to it, but the design is coming together I think the intent is still later this month to have that the bid letting process go and I Think we're still on pace.

We'll see if the hopefully there's no surprises that delay that but Excited to have that finally come into fruition to say yeah, we're let's make this happen So that's coming along.

Yep I know some people will say and again this kind of question comes up a lot So that means then you don't need to have staff moving that out there But right now your current staff is actually getting shifted from other Responsibilities to haul leachate to the yeah to the city wastewater plants It's one component one job that they've done and you know We have reduced staff over the years with the intent that this was coming down the line.

So We're operating fairly lean as is and this will just be able to help with that There'll still be work to be done We it we still have to monitor it there if there's any issues with the pump system Checking the monitoring instead of actually doing the hauling of it, but there'll still be some, you know Hours spent each day each week to make sure it's still working.

It's supposed to yep And then there's another tank at the at the landfill to another Leach a collection tank that will still need to be monitored and then we haul it from there to the Little lagoon I guess and I get it pumped to town.

So, you know, it's not foolproof It's still it doesn't fully run itself.

There's still gonna be some, you know, so that they do requirements with it But it is one of those again for the long term Because as we talked about extending the life as much as we can even after that You're gonna have this mandate to deal with leachate.

Yeah Yep, just that's part of the business trying to get to use it ahead of time and really excited about it I know previous administrator in discussions said wow you Wish I had that back then but we tried and it just didn't get it done.

So thankful for the support for that and Be able to utilize that other is of course the design going on for the last Cell and but again some of the interesting things we're learning Yeah, again, you you've talked about this in the past again by opening that it allows you to keep things flatter You get better compaction, but it also offers a couple of other avenues Maybe some added space that you could go a little higher.

Yeah, which what if you're going up that means then you'll really be out there in the wind whoo, yeah, that'll be a Especially if they would allow they be in the DNR is looking at a taller closure Height I guess if you will a two to one instead of a four to one slope So it could go certainly higher which would give us more life, which sounds wonderful But there's problems with doing that and want to be the wind to is accessibility To getting to those points if there's ever any erosion issues or whatever enclosure time So, you know that's got some problems in it, too And maybe we go three to one instead to find some common ground and you know And then we get a little creative can we go kind of to the west and not it still be on our property But still go to the west area of where we currently are and can we expand and you know Try to maximize every square foot that we have available so Yeah joy Challenges going ahead People want to find out more about some of the issues some of the things that are going on Obviously you guys can come out with that and again part of the keep Boone County beautiful again If they are looking for doing any cleanup things this these are things that the landfill also helps facilitate Besides our recycling and everything else, but if you want to find out more Well, maybe not take a tour here during the rainy season, but but again groups organizations They want to find out more they can call and and schedule an appointment a visit.

Yeah, it'd be great It's one of the most meaningful things.

It may not be glorious to see where garbage goes But it's certainly educational and impactful to be like that's that's what's going on and you see the operation and understand There's so much more to it than just throw your stuff in the garbage can and it magically disappears And you get to see where it actually goes and it can be an eye-opener All right, John Rosa landfill administrator recycling coordinator is our guest on the program today the legendary Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you