People who live in larger towns in this area must be scratching their heads over the ongoing use of burn barrels in smaller towns and in the countryside. If you live in Fairmont or Blue Earth, for example, you have to have your garbage hauled away. You can’t burn it. For good reason.

Burning is a safety hazard. It can start summer grass fires or set adjacent buildings on fire. Household waste can release toxins when burned. Given concerns for ourselves and neighbors, no one would spray poison into the air. Yet many people think nothing of burning their trash.

In the 1970s, the city of Fairmont closed its incinerator because it represented a fire hazard, and because it was not seen as an environmentally friendly way to dispose of garbage. It seems well past the time for smaller towns and rural residents to make the same kind of decision.

We see no reason why people living in smaller towns or in the countryside cannot rent large trash bins or buy garbage bags from haulers, just like businesses and people do in the larger towns. While rural garbage collection may not make sense, rural residents certainly could haul their trash to collection points.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is pushing to end garbage burning, so the days are numbered for this practice anyway. Martin and Faribault counties should do what they can to get out in front on this issue.

— Fairmont Sentinel, Jan. 28