Recycling in St. Cloud… Dos and Don’ts

St. Cloud residents pack their big blue carts with plastics, paper and glass.  Not all items put in the blue carts get recycled.  Dan Legatt is the Assistant Public Works Director for the City of St. Cloud.  He indicates recycled items should be placed in the blue carts loosely and not in bags.  The reason for this is all items collected travel down conveyer belts and items in bags complicate the process and can be missed.  Legatt also encourages people to remove foods from the items they place into the carts to increase the likelihood they can be recycled and deemed not contaminated.  Items that are deemed contaminated end up in the landfill.

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Items not accepted for recycling include garden hoses, batteries, and plastic kids toys.  Legatt says a list of what's accepted is on the lid of the blue cart.  Items like lithium batteries can be recycled but need to be brought to the Stearns County Household Hazardous Waste facility in Waite Park.  Their website has a "waste wizard" which can be used to help people find out if the item in question can be recycled there.

The plastics the City of St. Cloud accepts include single use items like yogurt containers, milk jugs and items that fit in the category of plastics #1, #2 and #5.  Plastics that fall into the category of #3, #4 and #6 are not accepted. Legatt says #3s are PVCs, which is kids toys, #4s are films which is plastic bags and #6s are Styrofoam.

Legatt explains large cardboard boxes should be broken down to be no larger than 18 inches by 18 inches.  He says if a cardboard box is stuffed into the cart sometimes the box gets hung up in the cart.  Legatt says it's O.K. to leave cardboard next to the blue cart if it if full.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Dan Legatt it is available below.