The Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District (ORSWMD) provides assistance to communities to achieve a waste reduction of 40%. This is accomplished through community grants, reuse and recycling programs and educational programs for district schools and media awareness. The district covers a seven-county region that includes Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties.
ORSWMD is governed by a full council and executive board made up of local elected officials and their appointees, and receives input from an advisory committee of local citizens and industry representatives.
Programs supported by the district’s community grant program include:
- Special Collections for items like electronic waste, tires and appliances
- Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection centers for cleaning
products, automotive fluids, etc. - Educational opportunities for school-aged youth through school
assemblies, Earth Day poster and trash art contests and solid waste
facility tours - Community Recycling Centers
- School based recycling programs
- School based food composting programs
- Illegal Dump Clean Up programs
The Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District completed its original solid waste management plan in (1993) to ensure compliance with Senate Bill 530, Missouri’s solid waste minimization law of 1990. The Ozark Rivers District includes Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and the cities of Bourbon, Cuba, Steelville, Sullivan, Salem, Bland, Hermann, Owensville, Belle, Vienna, Doolittle, Newburg, Rolla, St. James, Crocker, Dixon, Fort Leonard Wood, Richland, St. Robert, Waynesville and Potosi. The purpose of the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District’s original comprehensive solid waste management plan was to provide the strategy to implement and integrate solid waste management programs throughout the district, with the desired goal of a 40 percent reduction of the amount of solid waste generated for disposal in the seven-county district.