Caught between two construction projects, the Wal-Mart Community Recycling Center temporarily closed Monday.

“We’ll reopen sometime in September,” said Ruth Becker, the discount store’s green team coordinator.

Becker said efforts to keep the center open became impractical after construction work restricted front and rear access to the facility.

The work includes:

¢ A 94,427-square-foot addition to accommodate a full-line grocery store, a fuel center, a drive-through pharmacy and other features;

¢ Access-road improvements affecting Wal-Mart, Crown Chevrolet-Toyota-Scion and 34th Street.

Wal-Mart is building a new recycling center east of the former facility.

“It’ll be bigger and better than the old one,” Becker said.

City officials on Monday urged residents to continue recycling despite the center’s closing.

Alfredo Hurtado, customer representative for metals at the Bargain Center, 1146 Haskell Ave., operates an aluminum baler. Bargain Center offers money for metals and other recyclable wares. Its business may increase with the temporary closing of the Wal-Mart Community Recycling Center through September.

“The Wal-Mart recycling center will be missed,” Mollie Mangerich, operations supervisor at the city’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Division, said. “But this is a great time, I think, for people to try the convenience of the Bargain Center, which has just opened up at 12th and Haskell, or Lonnie’s, which has been around a long time.”

Lonnie’s Recycling, 501 Maple in North Lawrence, buys “almost anything containing metal,” she said.

The Bargain Center accepts paper, cardboard and most plastic containers. It buys aluminum and steel cans.

“We’re a one-stop shop and we’re local. We’re not part of a giant corporation,” said Chip Halderman, general manager at the Bargain Center, 1146 Haskell Ave.

Halderman said he pays about 41 cents for a pound of aluminum – “That’s 24 to 26 cans,” he said – and 1.25 cents-a-pound for steel cans.

“If you don’t want the money, we have a list of nonprofit groups that we’ll give the money to instead,” Halderman said.

Halderman said business was booming.

“We handled the recycling for Wakarusa Fest – that was huge,” he said. “And now with the Wal-Mart center closing, we’re getting lots of calls.”

One drawback: Neither Lonnie’s nor the Bargain Center takes glass.

“We’d like to and we’ve looked into it,” Halderman said. “Unfortunately, the market just isn’t there.”

The Bargain Center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Best Buy, 2020 W. 31st St., recycles printer cartridges, Ni-Cad batteries and cell phones.

• 6News video: Wal-Mart closes recycling center
• Wal-Mart expansion OK’d (05-05-05)
• Lawrence’s recycling rate increases (04-23-05)
• Land deal clears way to build supercenter (04-23-05)
• Environmentalists say it’s easy being green in Lawrence (02-13-05)
• More stories about the Wal-Mart proposal

For a small fee, curbside recycling is available by calling:

¢ Jeff’s Curbside Recycling, 841-1284.

¢ Community Living Opportunities, 865-5520, ext. 379.

¢ Home Recycling Service, 979-6633.

¢ Tree Hugger Recycling, 550-6267 (www.treehuggerrecycling.com).

¢ Sunflower Curbside Recycling, 550-8610 (www.kansasrecycles.com).

“It depends on the level of service you want, but for as little as $5, you can get once-a-month curbside recycling,” Mangerich said.

Last year, the city’s Solid Waste Division collected 71,136 tons of trash and grass clippings. Of this amount, 13,547 tons were recycled and 57,589 tons went to the landfill.

The Wal-Mart Community Recycling Center, Kansas University and several private company-led efforts kept an additional 16,093 tons out of the landfill.

“Public and private recycling efforts combined to keep 34 percent of the city’s solid waste out of the landfill,” Mangerich said.

“That’s above the national average and we’re pretty sure it’s one of the highest percentages in Kansas.”