Oklahoma community demonstrates support for recycling

An online survey conducted in Lawton, Oklahoma, has shown that more than 90 percent of respondents want their city government to provide a residential recycling program and the majority of them are willing to pay for it. Lawton is a city with nearly 100,000 people in southwestern Oklahoma.

The survey results, as published in an online report by the Lawton Constitution, were drawn from approximately 1,000 residents in a survey that was conducted “mostly online.”

According to the article, until mid-August 2015, Lawton residents had access to drop-off recycling stations at several city government locations. Although the stations were heavily used, they also began attracting nonrecyclable materials, to the point that the hauler began taking what was collected directly to the landfill.

Subsequently, Lawton’s City Council has been analyzing its recycling options and it initiated the survey of residents “to see exactly what they want and whether they even were interested in recycling,” according to the Constitution report.

That survey yielded these results, among others:

• Of more than 850 residents who answered a question about whether they recycle, 67 percent said yes.
• When asked why they recycle, 77 percent said it was because they wanted to preserve natural resources, and 80 percent said they wished “to do their part to save the planet”.
• Ninety-two percent of respondents who answered whether Lawton should establish a recycling program, even if it costs more than burying the material in landfills, said yes.

Lawton’s city government also is in the process of sending out and analyzing requests for proposals (RFPs) to investigate how to best establish a future program.