According to the CBS Minnesota website, every year, Minnesotans create 5.7 million tons of waste. Of that waste, 30 percent ends up in a landfill, 21 percent is burned or incinerated and 46 percent is recycled. (The national average for recycling is 35 percent.)
Aitkin County
A recycling program began in Aitkin County in 1991. The current recycling center in the Aitkin Industrial Park was constructed in 1992 and has operated under contract with Garrison Disposal ever since. According to Terry Neff, Aitkin County Environmental Services director, the original program was composed of compartmentalized roll-off containers placed at several drop-off locations throughout the county. Once materials were collected, they were sorted into separate compartments and marketed individually. The original drop off site was at Garrison Disposal’s main facility until the current recycling center was built with help from a capital assistance grant from the state of Minnesota. The McGregor Transfer Station has remained a drop-off location for recyclables since 1991. This facility operation has been under contract with J&H Transfer/ Lakes Sanitation since 2007.
Last year, Aitkin County recycled 272 tons of glass, 658 tons of paper, 701 tons of cardboard, 44 tons of tin, 62 tons of aluminum and 219 tons of plastic. Compare that to 2009: 112 tons of glass, 357 tons of paper, 460 tons of cardboard, 89 tons of tin, 116 tons of aluminum and 63 tons of plastic.
A Problem
“A few years ago we began co-mingling materials in hopes of increasing the recycling rate,” said Neff. “This has shown to be effective, however it has created an excessive amount of non-recyclable materials being mixed in. The instructions must be followed. Non-recyclable materials cannot be placed in the bins. We need the public to understand that just because there is a recycling symbol with a number on it does not necessarily mean the item is accepted at our recycling center.” A huge problem at the Aitkin Recycling Center, Neff said, is the recycling of plastics that are non-recyclable. Some of these items will cause damage to the sorting equipment and are extremely difficult to recycle, said Neff.
Plastic food and beverage containers (after all food residue has been removed) with a symbol of 1, 2 or 5 are the only recyclable plastic items. Neff said there also seems to be a lot of contamination in the glass items that are recycled. Additionally, glass dishes, porcelain items, Pyrex, and window glass are not recyclable at the Aitkin Recycling Center.
The co-mingling of materials helped reduce staffing costs at the Aitkin Recycling Center, but there became a necessity for new processing equipment at the larger processing/recycling facilties in order to sort the items into the the individual materials.
“Paper and aluminum have long been the most recycled materials,” said Neff. “However, with the increase in the use of plastic bottles versus aluminum cans, aluminum has been reducing. With that said, I would say plastic and aluminum are now the most recycled materials.”
Where Does it Go?
Aitkin’s recyclable materials are shipped to a larger processing facility where items are further processed and sent to individual markets to be made into other items. For example, paper is made into paper again; cardboard is made into paper bags, cereal boxes and cardboard; aluminum is made into other aluminum items; glass is made into other glass items and used for fiberglass and in road construction.
Neff said recycling reduces the amount of original materials needed to make a new product, thereby saving natural resources. It also reduces the amount of landfill space and cuts down on pollution as it takes less energy to make recycled products than new ones.
Ever Changing
“The recycling market is ever changing,” Neff said. “However, I don’t anticipate much change in the recycling of aluminum, paper, cardboard, glass, metal or plastic. There appears to be a push for recycling of organics (food waste) in the more densely populated areas, though I don’t see that affecting our area in the very near future.”
To read the full story, visit http://www.messagemedia.co/aitkin/community/minnesota-ranks-high-in-recycling-efforts/article_288c73b8-cf9d-11e7-bd26-8fdb048f7199.html.