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More on Plastic Garbage and Recycling

In part seven of her series on plastics, Julie Borgerding July explains how we can reduce our plastic waste and some alternatives we can explore.

Plastic garbage, a lot of which could be recycled, is visible every single day. When I’m on a walk the items I see most are plastic bags, broken plastic cups, flattened plastic water bottles and straws, which become trash. Eventually it breaks down into tiny pieces either by lawnmowers or by the wind and sun and gets blown into the nearby dirt or gets washed into the sewer by rain, or blown around in the air. Plastic collected by garbage companies gets either incinerated causing air pollution or brought to landfills causing plastic chemical leaching. 

Become involved in the reduction part of “reduce, reuse, recycle”. 

While it is hard to avoid, we can all make drastic reductions in the amount of plastics making their way to landfills by being more selective at the store. 

One suggestion is to avoid buying #6 plastic cups and plates. While you can wash and reuse them a few times, they are not recyclable and become trash. Most Solo and Hefty cups are #6. 

If you have plastic, reuse it by refilling at stores like The Evergreen Collective on Grand Ave. You can refill liquid soaps and shampoos. Reuse plastic containers for leftovers at restaurants or bring metal or glass containers. A lot of us reuse plastic bags, but as much as possible don’t take plastic bags at stores. Most get thrown away. 

Switch to biodegradable cups, bowls, utensils and bags to replace regular plastic zip lock bags. Bags used for composting food waste are relatively new. John Exner, a Dakota county environmental specialist, told me that unless the bioplastic item has the BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) logo on it, it cannot be put into organics recycling and it becomes trash. 

Merrick Inc. in Vadnais Heights does plastic bag recycling. They accept all colors of the following materials (labels are OK): pallet wrap & stretch film, case overwrap, product wrap, garbage bags/liners, toilet paper/paper towel/water bottle wrapping, salt bags, ice bags, non-paper bubble mailers & other plastic mailers, grocery/retail bags, Ziploc & other re-sealable food storage bags, bread bags, cereal/pasta bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, produce bags, but not the crinkly kind with holes, carpet overwrap, furniture foam wrap, heat sheets, mattress bags, wood pellet bags, bubble wrap and plastic bags marked with #2 or #4 recycle symbols. 

You can drop off some of these items at a variety of places around town, including Hampden Park Co-op, Hudson Grocery Co-op, Kowalski’s Market, River Market Co-op, Seward Co-op-Franklin and the Wedge Co-op. Make sure you check at the drop off site first, they may limit what they accept.

Producers of plastic packaging and products will continue to produce and use it if we don’t say anything and continue to buy all the stuff that comes in plastic. We can write to companies (contact info or a website is often printed on packaging), change our plastic buying or both. In 2024 the Minnesota legislature passed a law stating that starting in 2029 producers of plastic packaging must pay for that plastic disposal or recycling. I just read that in France and Germany, Nestle is testing reusable, returnable, stainless steel containers for some products to decrease use of plastic.

Do what you are able. Get educated on what you can truly recycle. Go to eurekarecycling.org/what-can-i-recycle.

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