County renewing focus on garbage separation

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County has signed a $40,000 contract with the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission (RDC) aimed at educating the public and businesses about separating recyclables and compostables.
It has been 30 years since the Swift County Environmental Services first implemented its program through which garbage was to be sorted into three categories: processibles (recyclables,) compostables and non-processibles.
Over the years, the program gradually faded with the people throwing their non-processibles and compostables into the same container. The recyclables have still been separated out of the regular garbage stream for the most part.
In the spring of 2019, Environmental Services Director Scott Collins wrote a grant for $285,000 to address the county’s efforts to upgrade the way it collects garbage.
Of that amount, $80,000 was dedicated to implement a county-wide educational program for residents and businesses about the importance of sorting their garbage to reduce the tonnage that had to be shipped to a landfill....
For more on this story, support community journalism and subscribe to the Monitor-News. Call 320-843-4111.