City of Columbia Missouri Utilities

P.O. BOX 6015
COLUMBIA, MO 65205

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 7, 2020

CONTACT: Steven Sapp
Community Relations Director
City of Columbia
573.874.7257
[email protected]

Brian Adkisson
Communications and Creative Services Manager
City of Columbia
573.874.7330
[email protected]

Important changes to residential curbside recycling beginning July 8

(COLUMBIA, MO) - Severe staffing shortages, primarily finding and retaining Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Operators, will require the City of Columbia to suspend the collection of all residential curbside recycling, starting on Wednesday, July 8, until further notice. Monday and Tuesday customers (July 6-7) who have already placed recycling materials out this week may leave them curbside and they will be collected by the end of the week.

Over the past several years, the Solid Waste Utility has struggled to retain CDL drivers as well as permanent and temporary help in collecting both curbside trash and recycling. In addition, finding buyers for recyclable materials has become difficult, if not impossible.

The City’s priority is to the health and sanitation of our community and hence the collection of trash must take priority over the collection of recyclable materials.

"This is a difficult decision as we know how valuable curbside residential recycling is to our customers and has been for many, many years," Director of City of Columbia Utilities David Sorrell said. "We encourage our residents to continue recycling by using one of our eleven drop off locations located throughout Columbia. We are also exploring additional locations for drop off recycling, especially on the north side of Columbia."

A map of these 11 recycling drop off locations can be found at CoMo.gov/utilities/solidwaste. The drop off locations are:
  • Columbia College Dulany Hall (near 8th Street and Hickman Avenue)
  • Columbia College Wrightman Building (south end of Pannell Street)
  • The Armory (north parking lot at 7th Street and Park Avenue)
  • 10th Street and Cherry Street (south side of the Cherry Street Parking Structure)
  • Home Depot (3215 Clark Lane)
  • Moser’s on Keene (900 North Keene Street)
  • Moser’s Supermarket (705 West Business Loop 70)
  • 3601 South Providence Road (outer road north of Nifong)
  • State Farm Parkway (on Nifong just east of Grindstone)
  • University of Missouri (Bluford Hall on Kentucky Avenue)
  • University of Missouri (Shurz Hall on Ashland Road east of College Avenue)
The City of Columbia apologizes for any inconvenience and appreciates our customers’ understanding.


City of Columbia Vision
Columbia is the best place for everyone to live, work, learn and play.

City of Columbia Mission
To serve the public equitably through democratic, transparent and efficient government.

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