Sunflower Diversified Services has been in the recycling business for 18 years. The last four years, the recycling center has averaged three million pounds of material that has been recycled per year. Sunflower Executive Director Jon Prescott says the organization hopes to double that intake per year and create six to eight new jobs for the clients.
Talking with the City of Great Bend and Barton County Young Professionals, one thing Prescott has heard is the desire to have a recycling receptacle placed in downtown Great Bend. Sometimes getting out to Sunflower’s recycling center on West 10th Street is not always convenient based on their hours.
Great Bend has moved ahead with placing a recycling trailer downtown that will allow citizens to drop their recyclables off any time.
Jon Prescott Audio
Sunflower tracked down a recycling receptacle that will be placed at the city-owned parking lot at 18th Street & Williams, to the south of “little” Dillons and across from Park Elementary School. The City of Great Bend purchased the trailer from Sunflower for $6,000, but Sunflower will handle the maintenance and emptying of the trailer.
Sunflower serves 125 clients with development delays or disabilities. Providing the adult clients with jobs is part of achieving the independence that they seek for each client.