New initiative includes organics

About one year from today, the city of St. Louis Park plans to officially start a new recycling program in an effort to become a “greener” community.

In August, the City Council proposed a new garbage and recycling program. It could include a weekly disposal of organics, along with a single-sort collection instead of the current dual-sort collection requiring recyclables to be sorted.

St. Louis Park public works coordinator Scott Merkley said organic collection would substantially reduce waste, and a single-sort collection would address the confusion residents currently share.

“In the past few years, the biggest issue has been sorting materials correctly,” Merkley said. “A single-sort recycling collection would be really easy for residents to use.”

Senior Anders Conroy, co-president of Roots and Shoots said he saw recycling issues in the lunchroom last year.

“We have such a terrible recycling system at the high school,” Conroy said. “Last year, students were either confused (about) what they could recycle or just didn’t care where their trash was going.”

A Waste Abatement Incentive Fund from Hennepin County awarded a grant to Park this past summer.

Roots and Shoots will help advise the school on how to spend the money to support waste reduction and recycling projects this year.

Conroy said the money could be used to create a centralized recycling bin in the C3 hallway or compost bins in the lunchroom. He said students need to be educated about recycling as teenagers.

“Recycling is a fundamental life skill that students must learn at a young age,” Conroy said.

Sophomore Sam Olson said he never recycled last year because he was confused about how it worked in the lunchroom.

“I was confused when I saw kids dumping everything in the recycling bins as if they were garbages,” Olson said. “There needs to be extra reminders or signs to spread awareness.”

Junior Maya Raz also said she was confused last year, but a recycling program at the high school is worthwhile.

“I would definitely be willing to set an example and spread the word about recycling,” Raz said. “Recycling is such an easy thing to do and really does make a difference.”

Roots and Shoots will work with the school administrators to begin a new recycling program by the end of the school year.

Meanwhile, the City Council will hear public input and proposals through November.

According to Merkley, the city hopes a new contract would be signed and approved by the City Council in March, and would go into effect citywide in October 2013 when the current contract ends.