Cass County Landfill & Recycling Center

Iowa's First (and only) Balefill Facility!

From Atlantic: South on Highway 71 about ½ mile. Turn east on Jackson Road. Continue 4 miles on the blacktop. The road curves quite a bit – just stay on the pavement and it will bring you right to us.

From Anita and Wiota: West on White Pole Road to 665^th St. South 2 miles to Jackson Road. Turn right and continue west about ½ mile.

From Massena: West on Highway 92 (Richland Road) to N28 (690^th St). Turn north and continue through Cumberland about 6 miles to Jackson road. Turn left and continue west 3 miles.

From Cumberland: North on N28(690^th St) 6 miles to Jackson road. Turn left and continue west 3 miles.

From Griswold and Lewis: North on Highway 71 to Jackson Road. Look for green Sanitary Landfill sign. (If you make it to WalMart corner, you’ve gone too far.) Turn east on Jackson and continue on the curvy road 4 miles.

Unfortunately, no. It needs to have a chasing arrows symbol with a number to be a recyclable plastic material. So, plastic wrap, packaging, vinyl, etc are materials that are NOT recyclable. Plastic shopping bags need to be recycled in the barrels at the entrance of local stores – we do not have the ability to recycle them at our facility. Also, even if it has a chasing arrows symbol, but has contained something with a high oil content such as peanut butter, margarine, or salad dressing, it cannot be recycled. The oil seeps into the container and degrades the plastic. If you have any questions whether something is recyclable, please call our office and ask. We are always happy to help.

The minimum charge is $10.00 ($5.00 for a car). This covers you up to about 220 pounds. After that first 220 pounds, it costs $.045/pound. We are asked quite often what a pickup load will cost but that depends on what kind of material is in the load. A few bags of household garbage is going to be totally different than a pickup full of landscape timbers.

We do not rent containers. You will need to contact one of the local haulers for that service. When you seen our big truck out on the road with a box on the back, it is hauling recyclables only.

The days of just pushing all the junk in a ditch are long over…and for good reason. The solid waste industry is a highly regulated and complicated business. One of the major changes implemented by the Iowa DNR over the past few years has been to require all landfills to become Subtitle D compliant. That means that landfills must now place all garbage on top of a costly liner system. The liners consist of different layers of barrier materials and necessitate the installation of pumping systems and lagoons. Each cell, or working area, lasts approximately 2 ½ years and about halfway through that time period construction begins on the next area. Engineering and contractor fees figure heavily into the budget for these projects. In fact, due to the overwhelming costs of becoming Subtitle D compliant, many Iowa landfills chose to convert to transfer stations. That means they gave up their own landfill, but collect the garbage at their site and pay for hauling it to another permitted landfill as well as the tipping fees at that landfill. Some even made the decision to close completely. We believe that retaining a landfill in Cass County is of the utmost importance. It is a valuable utility and one that would be sorely missed if it were ever allowed to close.

Cass County is the first, and as of right now the only, balefill operation in the state. What that means is that most of the garbage (excluding large demolition materials) is brought inside our processing building and baled into cubes, which are then transported up to the working face of the landfill and stacked and covered. By doing this we able to achieve a much better compaction rate than conventional landfilling as well as being able to work in a much tighter area up on the hill. Blowing litter is literally nonexistent and the public has advantage of being able to unload inside.

Once upon a time, we had the luxury of being ignorant to the toxic materials and hazardous metals that we buried. We had no way of knowing that these pollutants would someday leach out into our groundwater and pollute our waterways. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. Everyday we are finding new and better ways to control what is placed in our landfill. The term “dump” simply doesn’t apply anymore. Yes these innovations do come with a price. But the cost of doing things the way that we used to is too high a price to ask future generations to pay.

Our landfill is completely supported by user fees. We are not a county entity and therefore receive no tax money. Other surrounding landfills are able to receive operating capital in the form of a per capita tax that is assessed to all residents of that area and that most of those residents don’t even realize they are paying. We made the decision many years ago to be completely self sufficient and control our own financial future, thus the decision to utilize user fees only. Only those using the landfill pay for it. Our current tipping fee is $90/ton. Other surrounding counties are as high as $130/ton when the per capita rate in figured in. One other reason is that we are a very small rural area. Many other landfills serve several counties and/or cover metropolitan areas. That simply translates to more volume and therefore more income. We have many of the same expenses as these larger entities, but just not the same volume to support these costs. Remember, the landfill fees support all programs provided for Cass County residents. The green recycling boxes that are placed around the communities are provided as a free service to residents. Collection and disposal of Household Hazardous Waste is also provided free of charge for those residing in Cass County. We are always happy to work with schools and community groups on their educational programs and never charge for these services.