The Powell Valley Recycling Center may be stockpiling compressed bales of cardboard boxes and plastic milk jugs and pop cans waiting on higher sale prices and/or lower shipping rates, but the staff and board members at the nonprofit operation on the west side of town are still eager for more area residents to recycle.

To celebrate Earth Day on Friday, April 21, the center is paying 25 cents per pound of aluminum through the week.

The celebration comes as staff and board members look for more funding to compensate for not being able to profitably sell much of the recycling they have collected and baled. On Tuesday, board president Marynell Oechsner asked the county to help offset the $12,489 to repair an old baler the center recently bought at a discount from Worland after that city shuttered its recycling. The commissioners are soliciting funding requests from a number of organizations and will make a decision on funding as the budget process gets underway.

Worland shutting down is part of a trend, as locations in Big Horn County have shut down or reduced operations as well, leading to some people, 1% of the center’s users, to bring in recycling from neighboring counties. Last year the center shipped 450,000 pounds of clean bales of recyclable materials.

At a Monday morning board meeting at the recycling center, Oechsner noted while city residents account for 54% of people recycling at the center, rural county residents account for 41%. And while the City of Powell provided $66,225 in funding for the center last year, the county provided $2,500.

In 2022 there were 11,909 recycling drop-offs at the center. Staff are always on hand to help break down boxes and place recycled items in the appropriate spots. Oechsner said it saves the center money to be able to bale clean loads.

There are a lot of bales ready to ship behind the building, including what board member Jerry Rodriguez estimated at three to four truckloads of cardboard. It could be shipped now, but the cost to ship it to a recycling center that can break down the cardboard would be $30 more per ton than the revenue from selling the cardboard at its destination.

“That cardboard would be going to the landfill if it wasn’t for us,” Oechsner said at the Monday meeting.

There’s a lot more than cardboard waiting to be shipped. Board member Myron Heny said many people don’t know the center will recycle steel, but they do. And even if they can’t normally charge for them, they always take aluminum cans, which Heny said are one of the most profitable items to ship, even if the margin has dropped severely due to rising fuel costs.

In fact, in March the only items the center shipped were 3,000 pounds of aluminum cans.

The center did get a boost from two of the town’s grocery stores. A year ago, Blair’s began sending its pre-baled cardboard to the center to recycle. The opening of the new Albertsons in Powell allows the center to send the plastic bags it collects to the local grocery store, as opposed to going to Cody.

The Powell Recycling Center welcomes people interested in becoming a board member. Call 307-754-9773 for information.