Great Information on How
to Help the Environment
RECYCLING
(Information
current as of 2009)
Laurie at Nisswa Sanitation has clarified the following:
1. All plastic labeled 1-6, all colors of glass, and aluminum and tin cans can be co-mingled and placed in any of the bins labeled for those individual products "only". The signs are soon to be changed. You no longer need to separate these items.
2. Cardboard goes
in its own separate container. All other paper (newspaper, magazines,
phone books, envelopes and computer type paper, etc.) can be
placed in what
is labeled "newspaper".
3. For those who might not know, the Nisswa recycling center is in Nisswa in the parking lot behind the Nisswa Fire Department which is across the street from Carlson Hardware. It is run by Nisswa Sanitation.
4. Curbside recycling
is currently prohibitively expensive in rural areas like ours.
COMPOSTING
Composting is
a simple, low-tech way of reducing our enormous stream of
waste, recycling
kitchen and yard waste, and reusing that waste to enrich
gardens, container,
yard and woodland soil.
How can one make
a compost bin? A good internet publication from the U of
MN gives instructions
for many kinds of bins at
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG5553.html
Googling "buy
compost bin" will give you many purchase options.
What can be composted?
Here is a partial list:
Almost any kitchen waste except meat and dairy products (e.g. fruit and vegetable peelings and rinds, wilted or dried or spoiling fruit and vegetables, etc.) ,
Egg shells
Torn-up egg cartons
White paper napkins
and towels
Dryer lint
Plant clippings
Leaves (especially
good chopped or mown)
Grass clippings
(though they may do more good left on your lawn)
Used container
soil
Almost anything
biodegradable
How do you start?
Make or buy a bin or just start a pile somewhere, though animals like skunks and raccoons may find such an open pile appealing. There should be no bottom to the bin so that soil microbes can enter and begin their biodegrading process. Layers of brown (dried leaves, etc.), black (soil) and green (grass and green vegetation plus kitchen waste) work best and turn into soil fastest but composting will happen no matter what you do. Stirring and turning the pile speed the decomposition process, as does adding water. The amount of waste, the size of the bin and the temperature all influence how fast things decompose.
Give composting a try. It¹s addicting!
If you have questions,
Barb Peterson will try to answer them. You can find her phone number in
the Lake Hubert directory - (there are two Barb Petersons - this one is
listed in the directory at map reference 184).