EDITORIAL: Expanded plastic recycling reduces waste

The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

May 7—For many area communities, recycling is becoming second nature as residents regularly roll their bins to the curb for pickup.

Yet for all the items thrown into the recycling bin, there all those other items we look at twice before tossing into the waste basket, wishing they, too, were recyclable.

Some of those items turn out to be recyclable after all.

Thanks to a push from the group Mankato Zero Waste, local communities are discovering that more plastic is recyclable than many people realized.

The educational group is working with businesses and schools in Mankato, North Mankato and Lake Crystal to make the recycling collection of plastic material, such as packaging and bags, more widely available.

Participating organizations place recycling bins on their property where area residents can bring their materials. Drop-off bins are at such locations as grocery stores, the Fillin' Station coffeehouse, Minnesota State University, Vagabond Village, AmeriStar Manufacturing and other sites.

The collected material is to then be sold to Trex, a company that uses the plastic to make benches and composite decking.

So instead of tossing those cereal bags, ice bags, bread bags, newspaper bags, produce bags, sandwich bags, grocery bags, bubble wrap or plastic mailers into the garbage, area residents can drop them off at the local sites.

Of course, the main way to avoid having to find a way to recycle materials is to not buy products wrapped in them. But as consumers who constantly replenish our supplies of food and other goods, that's nearly impossible.

It also became even more difficult during the pandemic to remain ecologically minded as stores used plastic bags instead of customers' reusable bags or shoppers relied more on grocery pickup or delivery.

The increasing number of plastic collection bins in area communities is a welcome way to establish better recycling habits as we get out and about more this spring.

So even though we'll never be able to remove the "consume" from "consumer," we do have opportunities to do more good with the packaging waste we do create.