Post in Plastic Grocery Bags in Minneapolis

Mar 17 18:10 UTC

Greetings:

Trash Lady here....Thank you for a trashy topic!

Several places, including San Francisco in the States, and Ireland
across the Pond, have banned or significantly taxed plastic shopping
bags.  In most cases where they've been banned, their contribution to
the litter stream and their extreme ugliness when flagging from tree
branches or shrubs has been a driving force.  Waste of non-renewable
resources and widespread availability of reusable or renewable options
(cloth or net bags) have also been reasons for the taxing and bans.  In
Minnesota, there is a bill in the State legislature to ban the use of
plastic bags for leaf and yard wastes collection, beginning January 1,
2009.  This is the second time this bill has been introduced, and I am
told that it will most likely become law.

Minnesota and especially the Metro region have had plastic bag recycling
programs since 2003.  Check out www.itsinthebagmn.org/  for more info
and locations to recycle plastic bags near you.

Yes, in Minneapolis we require that garbage placed in the carts be
bagged.  You can use plastic or paper bags; your choice.  We require
this for several reasons; Worker safety (Mark was VERY correct, vacuum
cleaner dust, cat litter, bleach and paint are ALL hazardous to your
garbage folks), Public Health and safety, and neighborhood livability.
With respect to public health and safety, anything that we can do to
keep squirrels, raccoons, crows and other vectors of disease from
rummaging through your garbage cart is a good thing.  Bagging garbage
minimizes the escapable odors, and makes it harder for the beasties to
scatter your garbage up and down the alley.  Neighborhood livability is
enhanced when fewer garbage carts are malodorous.  Bagged garbage
doesn't leave as much garbage juice in your carts or on the alley where
it stinks up pretty fast.

With respect to recycling, yes, paper bags are preferred, but any rigid
container of 10 gallon size or less is also OK. I use containers that I
bought shrubs in.  We've got the Red Recycling stickers for you to put
on your own containers, so that the garbage and recycling guys won't
think that you just want to trash them.  E-mail me off-list with your
address and the number of stickers that you want me to mail out.  We
need more recyclables...our tonnage was down a bit last year.  The new
recycling calendars will be at your mailboxes soon; please take a minute
to look them over and as the local campaign says, "Re-Think Recycling!"

Warning: Brief Commercial Announcement: In Minneapolis we separate our
recyclables so that they can be marketed for reuse. I've been doing the
waste thing for 30 years, and I've never been able to sell garbage for
money.  I am able to market recyclables, and Minneapolis cleared 1.4
million dollars (net processing and marketing) on our recyclables.  To
give you scale, that is the equivalent of $1.40 per dwelling unit per
month on your City Solid Waste bill that you have saved by recycling!
Most of the suburbs that have gone to single or dual stream recycling
programs (one sort or two sorts) pay between $2.30 to $4.20/month for
those programs, and almost all of them had rate increases this year and
last year.  In Minneapolis, you still receive a credit on your bill if
you recycle; the SW & R rates did not go up in 2008, and our recycling
revenue is a major reason why.  There is a second reason to keep your
recyclables separated, and that is energy consumption.  Once your stuff
is commingled, it takes person-power and lots of electrical power to
sort them back out.  Air separation systems, vortexes, conveyor belts
and mega-magnets draw electrical power; the person-power is for the
stuff that needs to be hand-sorted.  As I think about things that will
help Minneapolis be more sustainable, keeping separated stuff separated
and saving the energy to re-sort them is high on my list.

Thank you for the opening to talk trash!  Let me know if more questions
arise.

Susan Young

Minneapolis Trash Lady, Graffiti Maven and Shopping Cart Diva