Kristin Eggerling: Recycling in NW Minnesota

News Topic(s): What's New*   Waste   Recycling   Minnesota Stories*   Kristin   

03/10/10 - It seems archaic to me that we have no curbside recycling here in the northwestern Minnesota town where I live. People in the metro area take recycling for granted. Set it out on your curb and it’s picked up and taken care of. No one gives it a second thought. Here you have to really want to recycle or you aren’t going to make the effort.

There is a receptacle in town where you can bring your recycling, sort it and deposit it into bins. There are bins for glass, aluminum, newspapers and plastic, but nothing for office paper, magazines or cardboard. Magazines can be taken to the courthouse on a certain day of the week. Now that sounds motivating, doesn’t it? The bins at the drop off spot that you deposit your recycling into are very difficult to open.

Trying to recycle at a drop-off facility

The heavy lids flip open but don’t stay open so you have to hold them while you throw your recycling into the bin or you can throw all your weight behind the lids to flip them over the top.  The problem is that if you do this it is practically impossible to close the lids again unless you are quite tall. That is what I did today and I could not get the lids closed afterwards.

Unfortunately, this means that recycling is practically impossible for the elderly, the disabled or even shorter people. While I am no body builder I am physically fit and relatively tall, and yet I struggle to open the bins. Not exactly user friendly.
 
This system has been challenging for me to adjust to. I come from a small town in Iowa that has had curbside recycling for more than 20 years now. I realize that there would likely be an initial hefty cost and during this time of economic crisis it’s unlikely that our local government would take this on when they are instead looking to cut expenses. But it’s not like there wasn’t plenty of opportunity when the economy was strong. It clearly has not been a priority and that’s unfortunate for all of us. It does help that garbage must be disposed of in costly bags to encourage people to reduce their waste. I’m sure that has done wonders for recycling here.

But many people live in the country and dispose of their garbage by burning it. Hard to believe but it’s a very common practice here. I’d love to see a different system set up but it doesn’t look promising in the immediate future. Until then I will have to pester our city leaders and county commissioners to try and at least get some bins that everyone can use.
 
Kristin Eggerling lives with her family in the far northwest corner of Minnesota in Hallock. She currently serves on a number of local, regional and state boards and works as a freelance writer.

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