Recycling program nets honor for county

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Freeborn County employees’ efforts to recycle and buy recycled products have earned the county honorable mention for a nationwide award.

Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Freeborn County employees’ efforts to recycle and buy recycled products have earned the county honorable mention for a nationwide award.

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County programs that quadrupled recycling while cutting garbage, encouraged buying cheaper recycled paper and other products, and started recycling printer cartridges were all part of the effort, said Environmental Services Director Randy Tuchtenhagen.

&uot;It was kind of surprising, because I thought every county does this,&uot; Tuchtenhagen said. &uot;But maybe not.&uot;

Tuchtenhagen cited several examples of the county’s environmentally friendly efforts in his application for the 2001 Environmentally Preferable Purchasing award, which was through the National Association of Counties (NACo).

County employees in each work space used to have garbage cans at each desk and a recycling bin in the middle of the room. Around three years ago, the county instead placed recycling bins at each desk and one garbage can in each room. The switch immediately started producing four to five times the recycling output, he said.

&uot;About 90 percent of the stuff they were throwing in their wastebaskets could have been recycled,&uot; Tuchtenhagen said.

The waste-reduction program has also helped the county keep its garbage bills down. Even while the county organization has added employees, it has held the line on its garbage output – which means the garbage bill has not gone up.

The county’s environmentally preferable purchasing program was another piece of the achievement. The county always checks on recycled materials when purchasing office supplies like paper, and found it can have more than an environmental benefit.

&uot;They were finding out that by specifying recycled content in the materials we order, it actually saves us money,&uot; Tuchtenhagen said.

Then, around a year ago, the county started participating in a program which recycles inkjet cartridges from computer printers. The county drops used-up cartridges in a plastic bag and mails them off to a company that recycles them.

For all their benefits, the environmentally friendly programs have created at least one problem for the county.

&uot;At some time we had to put in a bigger dumpster for recycling,&uot; Tuchtenhagen said.