Ramsey and Washington counties, which work together on trash management, will hold five open houses later this month to discuss proposed improvements.
The goal: “find ways to get more value from trash, while protecting the environment and taxpayers, and growing jobs.”
The Ramsey/Washington County Resource Recovery Project will hold these meetings, all running from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.:
- April 20, in Room 2317 of Century College, 3300 Century Ave., White Bear Lake. Free parking is available in Lot G.
- April 21, in the Marsden Room of the Ramsey County Department of Public Works building, 1425 Paul Kirkwold Dr., Arden Hills.
- April 23, in lower level conference room 14 at the Washington County Government Center, 14949 62 St. N., Stillwater.
- April 27, in at the Newport City Hall, 596 Seventh Av., Newport.
- April 28, in Auditorium A of the Wilder Foundation, 451 Lexington Parkway N., St. Paul.
The counties don’t handle trash collection from homes or businesses; that’s a city or town function. But managing it afterwards is a county job and they’re looking ahead 20 to 30 years on what’s next.
Some of the issues that have been studied:
- operational improvements at the Newport facility that handles most trash from the two counties, so that it could more efficiently remove accidentally discarded recyclables and, possibly, food waste.
- new technologies that can derive value for hard-to-separate recyclables and food waste.
- new technologies to derive greater value from shredded trash that is currently used to make electricity.
- ownership options that may reduce the price of trash shredding services provided at the privately-owned Newport facility, of which Ramsey and Washington counties are the primary customers.
- arrangements with local garbage companies that would ensure they continue to dump trash collected from their East Metro customers at the Newport facility.
