City employees on Monday were greeted with an overflow of cardboard and paper left outside of the roll-off containers around the city.

Public Works Director Brett Daniel said staff is used to getting overwhelmed by cardboard right after Christmas. However, he said breaking down the boxes allows for more room in those containers.

“Outside of just the big mess it creates, a lot of people don’t break down that cardboard,” Daniel said. “We are used to those containers getting overwhelmed after Christmas, but when people tend not to break them down, they fill up containers three times as fast. They could take a lot more if people break them down. When people choose not to do that, they fill up faster.”

Unfortunately, Daniel said, cardboard isn’t the only thing that ends up in and around the containers.

-Messenger photo by April Naeve
A cardboard box sits outside one of the roll off containers in the Family Video parking lot Tuesday. Boxes like these should be broken down before being taken to the containers, said Public Works Director Brett Daniel.

“We do find other stuff thrown in there like garbage bags and things like that that shouldn’t be in there,” Daniel said. “We just ask if in doubt leave it out, unfortunately.”

Acceptable materials for the roll-off containers include: cardboard, glass, paper, certain plastics and tin cans.

“Those other ones don’t fill up as much at Christmas,” Daniel said. “It’s nothing like the cardboard. Every toy and every person (seemingly) has some cardboard. We just don’t have extra containers. If we had extra containers we would use them.”

Daniel also said when the containers are full, residents can choose to wait a day to bring cardboard.

“People maybe hold on to them an extra day,” Daniel said. “We try to prepare the best we can and have the cardboard emptied. There’s just too big of an influx if people decide to get rid of it. It would be nice if people broke them down correctly. Not saying we would get every box in there, but we’d get a heck of a lot more.”

-Messenger photo by April Naeve
Cardboard boxes fill the roll off container in the Family Video parking lot Tuesday.

Overall, the issue was handled well by the staff, Daniel said.

“The staff did great and the stuff was pretty much cleaned up by 8 a.m. (Monday),” Daniel said. “They came in early Monday morning and started getting after it.”

The cardboard then goes out to the recycling center at the North Central Iowa Regional Solid Waste Agency.

There are three locations where cardboard can be dropped off throughout the city: the east side of the former Family Video parking lot along Second Avenue North; the end of the 27th Avenue North by Sports Page; and at the Public Works Central Garage at 3001 Eighth Ave. S.