After eight years working out of a county highway department garage, the Tri-County Recycling Center will be getting a new building. County officials met Oct. 31 in Slayton for an update on the project. Later, they visited the industrial park site to pose for groundbreaking photos.
Recycling is a major part of efforts to protect the environment by reducing waste disposal.
According to the OEA, garbage generation in Minnesota increased by 30 percent from 1992-1998 while the population only increased by seven percent. At this rate the amount of garbage created could triple in twenty years, presenting serious landfill space and environmental quality problems. Surveys show that each Minnesotan creates nearly 2,000 pounds of garbage every year. While recycling has kept pace with the growing volume of garbage, we can no longer continue to dump garbage in landfills at the current rate. In 1998, even with a 46 percent recycling rate, Minnesotans created three millions tons of municipal solid waste.