OSKALOOSA — Friends of Mahaska County Conservation had hoped to reach the 1 million mark on plastic shopping/grocery bags collected for recycling with an aggressive goal of collecting 300,000 bags during 2025. Unfortunately, they did not reach our goal but they did collect 176,000 bags which is the second highest amount collected since they began in 2019. In addition to the 176,000 HDPE #2 bags, they also collected 600 pounds of LDPE #4 bags.

During 2025, the North Mahaska Elementary students collected over 23,000 bags in three weeks, E-cycle generated 2,500 bags, Central Church Bible School collected over 1,600 bags during Bible School and the Golden Goose Club collected over 32,000 bags for the campaign. The rest of the bags came from all of the Mahaska County residents who brought their bags to Mahaska County Conservation’s recycling buildings or mobile trailer or from other individuals that have supported the program.

Since 2019, they have collected over 16,000 pounds of bags from our various collection events, mobile trailer, collection buildings and local business partners. All bags are being taken to Plastic Recycling of Iowa Falls for processing and are not going to the Mahaska County Landfill or littering our countryside.

A new collection building has been placed at the Environmental Learning Center in the lower level gravel parking lot. This building has been constructed with recyclable material except for the new trim. Many thanks goes out to Mahaska County Solid Waste Manager Joe Farris for his help in obtaining this material that was otherwise destined for the landfill.

Mahaska County Conservation says they now need only 124,000 bags to reach their goal of 1 million.