From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 11, 1988:

• A group of Lawrence residents calling themselves Separate Our Recyclables from Trash (SORT) was to go before the Lawrence City Commission this evening to discuss a plan to make Lawrence the first city in Kansas to offer curbside recycling. Rich Niebaum, a SORT member, said that about 600 communities in the nation had curbside recycling programs, but that the closest thing Kansas had was a number of neighborhood recycling collection centers in Manhattan. SORT members estimated that up to 25 percent of the waste now going to landfills could be recycled. “We’ve acknowledged that landfills will continue,” Niebaum said, “but let’s at least extend the useful life of the landfill we’ve got…. The bottom line of our proposal is we believe curbside recycling is a viable and sensible approach to the solid waste problem.”
• Citing growth that could fill up schools sooner than predicted, the Lawrence school board agreed this week to buy 24 acres southeast of the city. The acreage, about a mile south of K-10 on Douglas County Road 1600E, was to be purchased for $96,000 from the Kuchler family.