Clock is Ticking on Yard Waste Pickup Options in St. Cloud

Whether we like it or not we are transitioning from fall to winter.  Because of this the city of St. Cloud has just 2 more Mondays where they will pick up yard waste.  The last two Mondays are November 14th and 21st.  Assistant St. Cloud Public Works Director Dan Legatt joined me on WJON.  He says the white/clear yard waste bags are biodegradable within 90 days which is their requirement.  Legatt says they and their vendor are still looking for bags that offer drawstrings for the yard waste bags but the drawstrings they've tried aren't biodegradable within their 90 day requirement or the drawstrings aren't strong enough.

Get our free mobile app

Election signs will be taken down over the next few days. Legatt says these signs cannot be recycled in St. Cloud based on their requirements.  He says all of their recycled material goes to a Material Recovery Facility in Inver Grove Heights.  Legatt says the acceptable recycled items are single use items and require a minimum of residue in the recycled item.  He says to ensure the item can be recycled residents should clean out their recycled items and put them in the blue recycling bins loosely.  Legatt explains that putting them in paper bags makes it difficult for their machine to grab these items and could lead to them being flagged as garbage.

If you'd like to learn more about the recycling process or to hear about yard waste compost bags you can listen to my conversation with Dan Legatt below.