RAPID CITY - Right now, only 23 percent of homes served by Rapid City's trash-collection service recycle their trash.

Mike Oyler is working hard to increase those numbers.

"We as a society need to be more responsible," he said. "It's not that hard to do."

At Rapid City's solid-waste facility, Oyler oversees city recycling. It's his job to make sure that recycling collected is properly sorted and baled before being shipped to recycling facilities throughout the nation.

Currently, the city provides customers with a gray trash can and a blue recycling can. The blue recycling cans take glass, plastic, aluminum and tin. Trucks pick up both. Homes outside the city's collection routes can take their recycling to sites at Fitzgerald Stadium on Canyon Lake Drive, Fairmont Boulevard near Robbinsdale Park and just off Anamosa Street west of Interstate 90. The city collects at those sites.

Oyler said despite Rapid City's state-of-the-art facility, recycling numbers are still not what they should be. And at least part of the reason is lack of information.

People aren't sure what is recyclable and what isn't. For instance, plastics are rated with different numbers. Although the No. 1 and 2s are preferable, Oyler said the recycling center will take all of them.

In other words, if a person has a question about whether a plastic qualifies, Oyler suggests throwing it in. The recycling center will sort it out.

What the recycling center doesn't want is trash thrown into the recycling bins. Items such as cigarette butts, coffee grounds and food byproducts often end up in the blue bins. Those things obviously belong in the garbage. "It makes a tremendous mess here," Oyler said.

Collections supervisor Guy Krugjohn wants people to recognize that recycling is to their advantage for many reasons. First of all, of course, it helps the environment. But it will also help their bottom line.

"It saves room in your garbage can. It will cost them less money if they will recycle," he said. "And, of course, it's the right thing to do."

Krugjohn said people often call the facility and ask for a second trash can. When he delivers it, Krugjohn discovers that they don't recycle. In most cases, they can avoid paying for a second trash can by using the free recycling container.

As for the benefits to the environment, those are obvious, Oyler said. Recycling products uses less energy than creating those same products from scratch. Recycling means fewer things go into the landfills.

Oyler said people would be shocked to see how much waste a city such as Rapid City produces. "It is just a real eye- opener when you see how fast we fill up the landfill," he said.

New York City once did a core test of its landfills and found newspapers from World War I and World War II, demonstrating that that items in landfills are not breaking down as people assume they are, Oyler said.

Despite the precautions taken, landfills also pose a risk to water supplies. It's something everyone should think about, because recent research shows that 1 percent of potable drinking water is lost each year, Oyler said.

To Oyler, the long-term affects of not recycling are pretty obvious.

"We die. That's the long-term effects," he said.

Right now, Rapid City ships its recycling all over the country, and Oyler is always looking for more facilities.

The recycling center itself practices what it preaches. "Everything that comes into the facility is recycled one way or another," Krugjohn said. The facility paves its own roads with recycled asphalt. It composts everything possible, giving some composting products away and selling others.

With more and more options available for recyclables, Oyler hopes that Rapid City's recycling numbers will rise as more people realize that it's easy and important to recycle.

Krugjohn has the same hope. "We just need to get more people involved," he said.

ToursThe Rapid City solid-waste facility on Highway 79 offers tours to any group or individual who is interested. Call 355-3496 for more information about it.