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A poll on recycling

Congratulations and a huge thank you to Tracy Food Pride for showing its environmental awareness in allowing the recycling rolloffs for residents in your Tracy community to be in your parking lot. The renewed commitment that the community of Tracy has for recycling (and reducing, reusing) goes well beyond what the commitment of the general population of the U.S. toward environmental awareness. Forty-two percent of Americans admit they don’t recycle as much as they should. The average American says that they throw away, on average, five recyclable items in the trash every week. Why?

Thirty-six percent of Americans polled say that they don’t have enough room in their home to recycle. In order to combat the mess and the challenge of not having enough room, give this a try. Depending on the size of your family, have someone in your family come up with a small box or paper trash bag (like what you would get from a grocery store for groceries) and set that beside your trash can. Choose a box or empty trash can of a different color than your current trash bin, you can use this to carry the recyclables out to your recycling cart. If you are like me and live out in the country, you can use the same system except use the paper grocery bags. Since your recyclables should not be placed into your recycling bin or the rolloff containers in plastic bags, the paper grocery bags work the best. You can place the whole thing into your cart or if fitting things into the rolloffs, the bags fit perfectly through the little doors. This may also solve the next reason for not recycling which is 30 percent of Americans say it is inconvenient. This system will make it much easier to recycle. I have a family of five and we take out only two to three 13 gallon trash bags of trash a week. In comparison, I take around seven to eight paper grocery trash bags full of recycling to recycling each week.

If you work at recycling, it will also help your finances. By recycling, you can reduce the amount of money you spend each year on having your trash picked up. Nineteen percent of Americans believe that there is no financial compensation for recycling. Compensation comes in many forms but in this case how about a reduced trash bill? Smaller trash cans result in a savings on your trash bill. In European countries, it is not uncommon to see people getting a little money back for some of their recyclables. Seventeen percent of Americans simply forget to recycle. If you place your indoor recycling container in front of your trash container, you will be less likely to forget. If you struggle to wash out cans or plastic containers, you can place these in your dishwasher. Perhaps you have a child in your family who needs a little spending money? They can be in charge of washing, rinsing and the recycling bin.

Thirteen percent of Americans polled say that they don’t know what is recyclable. In Lyon County, we have all sorts of options for finding ways of recycling. If you would like an up-to-date recycling guide, please contact me. In Lyon County, we can recycle glass with the caps left on, plastic containers with the lids left on, steel, tin, and aluminum cans, paper (even the shiny paper), cardboard such as cardboard boxes, cardboard egg cartons, beer and pop boxes and other boxes such as spaghetti or macaroni boxes. If the food boxes have a little window in them, they are still recyclable. You can also place shredded paper into recycling but it must be bagged in a clear bag (or one that is nearly clear so anyone can see inside the bag) and knotted shut. You can also place plastic bags such as shopping bags and Ziploc bags in recycling too. They also need to be placed into a fairly clear bag and tied shut. You can also bring your plastic shopping bags back to several stores in the area for recycling too. Remember, all things should be clean and dry!

And don’t forget, even though the mattresses, electronics and car seats do not go into your recycling cart, they can be recycled too. These items will need to come out to the Public Works building which is located at the fairgrounds in Marshall or out to the landfill which the items are stored in a building and brought back to Marshall.

The Public Works building is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m .and the landfill is open Monday-Friday 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 7 a.m.-noon. For questions about recycling, you can email me at StephanieBethke-DeJaeghere@co.lyon.mn.us or call 507-532-1307.

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