Muskogee’s recycling center isn’t paying for itself yet, but officials say its benefits are bountiful and continue to grow.

An example, they say, is the disposal recently of hundreds of worn out, plastic garbage cans. Instead of being hauled off to the landfill, the polycarts were crushed, baled and sold to a plastics recycler.

The city’s focus on recycling was made possible with funding from a grant that was used to purchase and install two baling machines used to package plastics discarded at the recycling center.

“We just sold 14 pallets of plastic bottles,” said Francie Martin, a clerk with Stormwater Division of the city’s Public Works Department. “Our old polycart trash cans that were all damaged — we used to just toss them but now they can be sold, too.”

Martin said recyclable plastics stamped with the numeral 1 fetch about 8 cents a pound. No. 2 recyclable plastics sell for about 10 cents a pound. Martin said that isn’t enough to cover the cost of sorting, baling and transporting the material, but the city’s recycling effort will extend by years the life of the local landfill.

With the city’s plastics recycling efforts beginning to take off, Martin said the city is exploring other recycling opportunities. One that appears to be on the horizon is the possibility of adding a receptacle for recycling food-grade oils.

The cooking oil, Martin said, would be picked up by Tulsa Biofuels, a company that uses recycled cooking oil to manufacture biodiesel. The Tulsa-based company, formed in 2005, not only converts used cooking oil to biodiesel, it collects the oil prior to conversion and distributes the end product to consumers.

“We are talking about putting a container down there,” Martin said about the possibility of collecting used cooking oil at the city’s Recycling Center. “But on the stormwater side, I have to check with (the Oklahoma) Department of Environmental Quality to see if we can do it.”

Ron Bladen, an environmental technician with the city, said having a place for residents to dispose of used cooking oil could — if people take advantage of the option — curb the build-up of oil and grease in the city’s wastewater system.

That problem, which has been likened to the health complications that can result when a person’s arteries become clogged by cholesterol, is one Muskogee and cities across the nation are trying to tackle. Bladen said food-grade oil and grease clog sanitary sewer lines, which can cause wastewater to back up into homes and businesses.

“Most of the restaurants have rendering bins and use a service to haul away the used cooking oil,” Bladen said. “Residents don’t have many options, so this would be an option I would like to see people use.”

Public Works Director Mike Stewart said business at the Recycling Center, which has been operating at its present location since the mid-1990s, is really picking up.

“Plastics are booming — we are collecting an enormous amount of plastic,” Stewart said. “I am very proud of our Recycling Center.”

Stewart said the city has earned state recognition for its efforts during the past few years to promote and expand the center’s services and recycling opportunities.

In addition to the wide variety of recycling opportunities, residents now can pick up free mulch generated at the city’s trash and limb disposal site. Stewart said the mulch has been available at the disposal site for some time. But limited operating hours made it difficult for residents to take advantage of the offerings.