SIOUX CITY — Sioux City officials continue to work to boost the embrace of recycling of materials that should not be thrown in with garbage, or worse yet, littered.
As a means to encourage more recycling, the city has placed several more big recycling units in the high pedestrian traffic area of downtown. And, those recycling units are made to be eye-catching as well, so a local artist came into the endeavor to make them with bright, creative artwork.
Sioux City Artist Jessica Hammond was enthused to be part of the project, so she added her colorful spin on a few units in 2023, when those were first used temporarily for the notable events of ArtSplash and Saturday in the Park.
Now, that has been expanded to eight such colorful recycling dumpsters, which in April were placed in prominent downtown locations.
Hammond, who operates Brutal Doodles, said recycling such items as metal, plastic and other items is important to her, since too many people throw away items that are better recycled.
The project to bolster recycling particularly in downtown Sioux City is a collaborative effort of Downtown Partners, the City of Sioux City, the Environmental Advisory Board, and Gill Hauling.
The recycling containers will be available for businesses and residents to use as an alternate location to recycle paper, plastic, aluminum, and cardboard materials.
Hammond was really enthused to make the recycling units distinctive and eye catching.
Using an offshoot of her art business name of Brutal Doodles, she calls them the Downtown Doodle Dumpsters.
Now that the large recycling units are out, they can be found in eight high traffic downtown areas such as in or near the Tyson Events Center, Pearl Street Park, and the Sioux City Convention Center.
Those locations are listed on the city of Sioux City website, plus brochures are at city hall for people who want more details.
The Ripple Glass containers are still available at six (6) locations throughout the city for glass recycling.
Artist Hammond is hopeful that increased recycling is on the way through people using the new units.
