John Roosa, Administrator, Boone County Landfill and Recycling, May 06, 2026

Our guest on our program today, the legendary John Rosa Landfill Administrator Recycling Coordinator for Boone County. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Good. Good. It's not raining in your landfill or snowing or we get a little breeze, so that's okay. Anyway. Happy spring. Yeah, springtime. Yardway stuff still going on. Did a household hazardous waste collection event last Saturday. Yep. Someone new season. I don't know. People getting the drift of that. They are. Yeah. It's been a steady flow of traffic, I guess you'd say. It's popular enough to justify that let's keep doing that and I think it's beneficial to the community to give opportunities to get rid of that without having to make appointments and stuff during the week. It's just so much more convenient and it accommodates those that can't be out during the week. Sure. But the idea is we don't want to have you clean out a whole house and bring a truck load out. That's one of the challenges. But you know, definitely you can bring things out, make multiple trips, I don't, something like that. Yeah. But it's easy enough to do that. It's a service. I know, yeah, people are going, but I still have to drive out there until maybe next month. Right. Yep. Are you going on location? June. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Because we don't, I mean, it would have been easy because I already would have been talking and all they're doing citywide cleanup, but they're not so, but you're still doing the household. Still going to do that. Yes. That was already scheduled. Metro has done that for us for quite a few years. The first one in, first weekend for Saturday, sorry, of June, coming into DMACC parking lot and in the back there and set up again, that used to be a hugely popular one. I remember when I first started working at the landfill and getting involved with that and there would be a hundred cars rolling through there on a two-hour time period. It was just a parade of cars coming through, which was great, but then we started doing the Saturday things. Now it seems as if I've taken the burden upon that day as taking some of the burden off. You don't quite the volume. So, still getting a few and then I'll throw in another little kicker to that. I just, when talking with Ogden, they reached out and said, hey, what about those collection events? Could we do one of those? I was used to. It was before my time. There was a collection event. So, we've actually determined on Monday, June 8th, in the evening, we're going to do one over there. So, we'll work with Metro to say, can we do this? And they were wonderful to work with for their hazardous waste. Folks are wonderful to accommodate. He's like, it'll be busy week, but yeah, we can squeeze that in. So, we're going to do a collection event from five to seven, kind of part of their cleanup days in Ogden and we're going to tie it into the whole service that they do around their city park area. So, six, and then are they eighth in Ogden? So, yeah. Well, and I do remember, yeah, because there was one in Ogden, one in Boone, and then one down in Madrid. And the question was, yeah, getting them all booked in and staged and everything else. And in those days, it was the new easy thing to do. So, you wouldn't get larger volumes. You wouldn't get things like that, but now we've kind of gotten past that. Again, if somebody's going to clean out a space or something like that. Yeah. Those are state cleanouts and the family farms and all those discoveries that are being made. Those are challenges. Those, we still suggest, take it to Metro. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Well, yeah, again, it's a space. It's a space thing. Yeah. Yeah. I remember them coming up with a semi-trailer, going it up. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of stuff going in there then, too. But that was in, at that time, they were also taking some of the latex paint and blending it, and it was, what are we going to use it for? Right. So, you'd get a whole bunch of gallon buckets and dump them all in a five-gallon pail and usually turned out to be kind of beige, something like that, something like that. Good luck trying to make that recipe to match it up to anything. Yeah. No, that's true. That was true. So, coming up in Ogden on the 8th, okay, that's good, and we'll be able to remind everybody before we get there. But yes, because they are going to have some cleanup days in early June before fun days stuff go on. Right. Yeah. Well, okay, so we've got all of the, we've got the cleanup thing going on. Yes. The yardway is still going pretty good. I'm guessing occasionally someone will get a two-by-four in there. It happens. Yes, it's, you know, knock on wood, it's better, I think. There's less of it, I've seen. So, yeah, if you're interested in bringing out your yard waste, if you want to know details about it, you know, I had that conversation with someone on the phone the other day about yard waste and, you know, I'm like, yep, it was yard waste. So does that include treated, you know, lumber, you know, four-by-fours that are treated in railroad ties? Yeah. No, those didn't grow in your yard. So we're talking about stuff that grew naturally in your yard, in your yard somewhere. So not buying two-by-fours or railroad ties, swing sets, any of the stuff that's in your yard that didn't grow does not go in there. Because people did a lot of landscaping with things like railroad ties and things like that. Sure. Now they're all concrete soon. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, now it's how do you get rid of those? Yeah. That's the challenge. I remember. Yeah. Even my dad, you know, we had some of those. Sure. Along the driveway. It lasted pretty well, too. Yeah. Those, yeah, I mean, you know, that's kind of what people were doing at the time. Now it's a matter of where do I take those? Mm-hmm. How am I going to get rid of that? Is that regular garbage then? Railroad ties? Okay. Is that to... We will take them. ... commercial demolition? Yeah. How do they handle those? We can. Small amounts. And really it comes down to how old and rotten they are. It's a space-saving issue. Material inside of it, of course, the tar, the goo, the creosote that's in there is a problem. But, you know, they're all dried out and rotten and they're not, you know, then there's really nothing left, just the wood. We can accept that. We just want smaller pieces, mainly with that point. So that's why we want them rotten to be able to grind or to smash them up so they sure crumble better and compact better into the landfill. That's our goal. Yep. Compaction. All right. Let's talk about it. Capital projects. I think with the board, I know you've got... And we knew it was coming. We've talked about it. So we talked last time. You got the bid from J.B. Holland to do the Leach-8 collection and then the pumping station and then sort of the force main project and $876,000, I think, WHKS put together a pretty good plan. I think it's kind of within the parameters you were looking at for price. Yes, certainly. And ready to get that moving on, I think we signed the contract later in an hour or so. We have that officially contract with them and then we'll be having a kickoff meeting with them and get things rolling a little bit. So next thing, we'll develop more of a timeline, but we anticipate the bulk of that work. So there's actually probably two parts, essentially. So we have the bottom portion of the landfill, the stuff that's on site for the force main. We have to pump it up from the bottom up to the top before then it gets pumped into town. So if they can do their work sooner, it would be nice. And weather permitting, I'm sure they're probably anxious to get going as well. Get their work on site in the landfill itself. Get that done. And then we can actually go to the next portion, which is the next capital project that just got bid and that should be approved later today as well to say, let's contract with the winning bidder for the construction of the cell. So we get the force main work down below, get that all set in place, and then we can turn the next project loose and they can start on that. So really, in our minds, working with both engineers about it to say, let's get that force main thing done in June and then let's get the cell thing going in July. And it's a reasonable timeline, I think. There's a lot of material in our next cell because it's kind of a broader area and we got more liner perches and plastic is not cheap right now due to petroleum prices. Those are directly tied together. And then the amount of sand that we're going to be purchasing too because we need to finish sanding off the previous cell and then we're going to do the whole cell that's being built so that it's all in place. It's got all tied together. Yeah, it does. And then it's a lot of perches and we're talking a half million dollars in sand alone just to put into the cell. So that's a big chunk of it when you thought a quarter of it is going to be just for sand. I think a lot of people aren't really aware of just how much goes into a cell or, again, because you need to have, well, first of all, the leachate, you've got to be able to get that away. Yeah. Again, we're talking DNR requirements. And it's going to be more, you know, leachate every year as we expose more garbage and broaden the footprint. You know, the old stuff is still going to be having water seeping through it and collecting so it's going to be producing leachate and the new stuff in the new area is going to be more gathering of that leachate and in it goes and, you know, we've been hauling out one point, a little over a million gallons, 1.1, 1, 2 last couple of years, millions of gallons of leachate to haul into town. If we can collect that and I'll pump it, you know, that'll be and it's going to be more. So it's certainly going to be paying off. As I see it, it's, you know, doing estimates, it's going to save us will be even on money and probably less than 10 years. Yeah. Because I know, yes, when you were going with the supervisors on this, the bottom line is they're going, this is going to be there a long time, hopefully continues to function, you know, well after because that's the part you have the what you call the closure, post-closure cost. Yeah. You got those. Yes. Quite some time, you know, hopefully that closure time starts as long as possible for now. Way down the road. And then we're still using it. The advantage, and again, we talked about this in the past too, the advantage of starting this last cell, I know we get, you always get slightly apprehensive when you say the last cell, but with new engineering, new kind of technology, new way, new ways of looking at what you've got, there are potentially some other opportunities. It won't be the big kind of ravine and fill it up and gradually cover it up and stuff like this. You're talking about by having this new one out there, we can start to spread into that area and then have a much wider, flatter area and you don't have to go up a steep and things like that. Yeah. And then you can keep it thinner, keep the layers thinner. Yeah. Right. Spread it out and it'll compact better by not having depth of garbage to smash and thinner will smash easier. We'd be looking at maybe we can broaden to the west on site, not on new property, but within the landfill property itself. So get a little more creative. And then DNR is considering to say maybe you can go taller, which would give us more space. That's got some problems and there's some hesitations in doing that, but if you can't go wider, you have to go taller if you're going to keep using the space. How many, how you know, could we have a mountain out there? Yeah. Have our new ski points. Well, we can compete with Mount Trashmore over in Cedar Rapids with their closed landfill and then make a use of it, a hiking trails and stuff on top of the garbage, but which is what they've done at Mount Trashmore. So we'll see what opportunities down the road. So it'll be someone else's problem. Yeah. Well, it's going to be, it will be a while. Yes, folks. It's not instantaneous. But the big thing, it's, thank goodness he's a math guy, so, but we've talked about this in the past. It's all a matter of conserving that airspace as much as you can. And at the same time, I'm guessing, and now we know that eventually Ames will be, Ames and Surrey County will be hauling elsewhere, but still I'm guessing even local, you're seeing increases in volume. I mean, just even the local, just the boot, just your service area, not necessarily including Ames and Surrey County. You're still seeing those volume increases. People are throwing things away. There is. It's, you know, a disposable society and it's still going stronger. You look at our, you know, it's not just about Boone. I mean, not the city of Boone, obviously, but it's all the Boone County and where is our growth? There is certainly more growth to the southern end of the county, matter of growing Woodward. And we get Granger, you know, throw that one into the mix to the city of Granger. That waste comes to us. That's an area that's going to continue growth as well. Look at Boone proper. What's the bigger project going on? It's a rather sizable project going on in our community. Daisy. Yeah. Daisy. And what's that going to be? And they're going to have disposal. Right. And it's a different type. You know, you look at, okay, the landfill takes garbage. Yeah. Okay. Your kitchen garbage, your bathroom, whatever, you know, in your household garbage. That's just one element. And it's a pretty small element when you think about it, too, versus commercial and industrial. And you look at what Daisy's probably going to be doing in their haul in there. All their waste. Their waste product. Yep. Unused product. Yeah. They have to dispose of it somewhere. Yeah. And the amount that we're cutting back on Ames and Story County going away and then at about the same time, Daisy's going to be firing up production during that time. And then, you know, so we're not, we're saving space. Yes. It's not going to be the same. It's not, you know, a one-to-one trade by any means with Story and Ames leaving and then Daisy starting up. It's not going to be equal, but, you know, it's still going to be an impactful amount. So there's any of that growth, any industry has production of waste. And then where does it go? And if, you know, hopefully we can handle it. That's, you know, hopefully we can accept it. Some of the stuff has to go outsourced somewhere else, but for the most part, we take all that stuff. And the more we take, the less life we have, which is tough. It's, yeah, it is. Well, those are, it's not a never-ending location, so we've got all of that happening. I just, I'll let you keep track and do all that. In the meantime, let's talk some recycling opportunities, still have some great things and clean-up opportunities to keep Boone County beautiful, a great way to, for people to adopt roadways and things like that. So still encourage that. Yes. Yep. If you're interested in cleaning up a stretch of road, contact us. We have some opportunities for that. We'll help you out with bags and grabbers and such, and we'll even pick up the stuff after you've gathered in the bags. We'll pick up the bags once you've accumulated those. If you've ever seen those adopt-a-road signs out there and wondered, what the heck does that mean? Give us a call. We can give you some information about it, 515-433-0591 for the landfill in Recycling Center. We can share information about adopt-a-road, now that all the snow's gone, thankfully, there's a lot more exposure about what's been in our ditches for the last few months. And if you haven't cleaned up your stretch of road adoptees, now's a good time to get out and make that happen, especially before we hit it in the summertime and everything that the beautification of our county. We have that event coming up in July that's going to be kind of impactful for our community as well. Raghbri is what I'm referring to, so the more we can show off our wonderful community, the better. I think, and that's one of the things too, we do have people that clean up stretch as a road and just leave it out, they just do it, as they do. But again, we're talking county roads. If you're talking about the state highway, that's DOT, they take care of it. Talk to them. But for Keep Boone County Beautiful, and it's not just that because you have sites, people do the boat ramps and stuff, and I remember there was a push, but last year I think it was to get a little more effort, volunteers out there for doing those, so like I said, never ending. We have a lot of things happening. So we got that going on. But anyway, recycling opportunities once again, continuing to go with that and get those opportunities. I got to ask because I missed the last business one that came by with the cardboard and the office paper recycling, I'm sorry, I didn't have my card out, I don't think. We kind of adjusted our schedule a little bit. I think instead of coming every month, it's going to be every other month is what we were told. For papers? Yeah. For papers and stuff. We got that. And just make it more efficient. You know, the last trips we have for smaller amounts, if businesses, you know, you have the opportunity here, you have some storage room for extra space, and we'd certainly rather give you an extra cart and make it worth or stop, you know, for a bigger amount rather than smaller amounts. So yeah. Still have that going on. We do. Does it slow down a little bit with schools closing and stuff? Yeah. Well, we trade some of that stuff because then there's other businesses. We used to work more with the camps, some of them have given up, but we're still doing some of that efforts too. So school goes away, but camps come on and adjust and deal with it. So let's talk about the summer tour of the landfill. Somebody would like to schedule one. This is the time of the year. They could make contact. You bet. Yeah. DMACC students come out, a class, an instructor in classes come out, gave them a tour, saw the recycling stuff, then went over and saw the work face, and you get, you know, it means a little bit more. You can see some of the eye-opening like, wow, you know, as we stood in the office and you get to witness the trucks nonstop pulling onto the scale and in and out, and it was, it's just one after the other, and they're, you know, they start getting it. And then we went down below and be like, okay, there's those trucks, you know, now they're, this is what happens after they left the scale. This is what happens and they're dumping and, you know, they see the amount of trucks coming in. That was their environmental science stuff, wasn't it? They'd learn. Yeah. And those are some of the big challenges that do it, and I look at that and I think, you know, a lot of people, you know, you'll see on TV, the big landfills and all the way they're doing it, we operate the same way. Not quite on that scale, but still got a lot of, a lot of volume coming in. Yeah. Yep. I sure do. John, I don't know what to tell you. How do you get, how do you get away from it? Just have more recycling opportunities, I'm guessing. That's true. Have more, have less stuff in your life and then take care of your waste appropriately. Don't just say, this is the conversation we had at the board too, to say, you know, our rates are reasonable and it's, and so often times that's interpreted as, it's so cheap to just throw it all away, just throw it all away. Who cares about recycling that, you know, it doesn't hurt enough and, you know, we keep our rates down, but there's always that trade off. But you know, kind of like, in my mind anyway, it doesn't matter about our rates, how high they are, as far as the impact for illegal dumping, a dump is going to dump and in some ways recyclers are going to recycle, but trying to get the others to participate is the key. That's a big thing. And I hope the message is always, try to get them to care and if you learn to care, if you come out to the landfill and see what happens, all your garbage that you throw away goes somewhere and you don't just put it out of your mind once it hits the curb because it goes away, come out and see the rest of it, see the rest of the story. I think once you get down like on the face and, and you know, it's still, I can remember going down there when it was substantially deeper. And then you go out there now and you go, what happened to all that? It's all garbage. It's all under my feet. Yeah. We go. Maybe, well, maybe we will have hiking trails. Who knows? Someday. John Rosa, landfill administrator, recycling coordinator, our guest on our program today. I do appreciate you taking time to visit with us. And once again, we're going to have some major capital projects going on out there for construction. And again, on the equipment side of things, I know that you're going to hold off as long as you can, but not inexpensive stuff anymore, is it? Nope. No, prices keep going up. And I'm guessing operation out there hasn't gotten any less expensive with the price of fuel. So you get, you do contract, so that help, but you're a little ahead of the game anyway. But still, there's a bunch there. That hurts. You have to contract again. So anyway, thanks for taking time to join us and get us updated on what's going on. And we'll visit with you again here later on in the month and see what's going on. You bet. Thank you.