Garbage vs Recycling? We know which is better...

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has been studying our habits when it comes to throwing stuff in the trash...

• The amount of plastic thrown away has increased from 11 percent of the waste stream to 18 percent since 2000.
• Paper in the waste stream has decreased from 34 percent to 25 percent, likely due to decreased printing of newspapers.
• Twelve thousand tons, or 24 million pounds, of aluminum beverage containers were discarded in Minnesota in 2012—the equivalent of 3.6 million aluminum cans per day.
• Over 543,000 tons (1 billion pounds) of recyclable paper were discarded in Minnesota in 2012.
• 21,000 tons (41 million pounds) of PET beverage container plastic were discarded in 2012.
• Organics (food) accounts for 31 percent of the waste stream, which is a 21 percent increase from the 2000 study.

The 2013 waste composition study indicates there is less paper and less glass in the waste stream, but more plastic and more food waste. This speaks to the need to find a way to recycle more types of plastics, and to establish more organics collection opportunities to handle the large amount of food waste that is being thrown away.

“The organics information is the most obvious issue we can, and will, address with more organics recycling and composting,” the MPCA’s Peder Sandhei said. “There are many findings to discuss and strategize to improve from this report, but the main point is that we’re discarding valuable resources, and jobs are lost with every garbage truck that’s emptied.”

The study also shows that Minnesotans are discarding a large amount of material that is currently recyclable -- material that can be used to create jobs in the local economy. Some of the Minnesota companies that make or produce products out of recycled material are Rock-Tenn in St. Paul; Bedford Technology in Worthington; By The Yard in Jordan; Master Mark in Paynesville; Liberty Paper in Becker; New Page in Duluth; and Gerdau Ameristeel in South St. Paul.

Ok folks, better recycling is coming to Saint Paul next spring - with more plastics able to be collected, with single stream and so on. The County will allow collection of organics at the compost site - next year... In the meantime, we can still be doing better than this!! And Gerdau Steel is a business in OUR neighborhood!!