Living Earth Center and Mankato Area Zero Waste have teamed up to bring you an opportunity to pick up some healthy, rich compost for your garden, plants or lawn. The event will take place from 9:00 to noon at Blue Earth County Community Farm, 20612 Indian Lake Road.
It’s time to get excited about reducing waste! Here’s your opportunity to learn more about actions you can take to reduce your impact on the environment.
Jane Dow and Betty Winkworth, co-chairs of Mankato Area Zero Waste, visit with Karen Wright of KMSU Radio about the latest research on the impacts of plastics. They also discuss local recycling. . Listen to the program by clicking on the link below. .
The omnipresence of plastic is harming our health, our environment and the planet. Beyond Plastics Greater Minnesota Area has developed resolutions to be presented to the City Councils in Mankato, North Mankato and St. Peter. The number of signatures entered in support of these resolutions will have an impact on how successful they are. Please read and the resolution unique to the city in which you live. Please share this information!
EPR Fact Sheet
Producer Responsibility – Reduce plastic and hold polluters accountable
What is EPR for Packaging?
It’s a program to hold producers responsible for the cost of managing packaging waste. At present, producers decide what to use for packaging and consumers must accept it and pay for it. EPR for Packaging puts costs back on producers, so they make different choices. The goal is to redesign packaging to make it safer and more recyclable and to reduce packaging altogether.
Why do we need it?
Plastic pollution is a crisis, and more recycling can’t fix it. 40% of the waste stream is packaging. Local governments are responsible for recycling and have little control over what they must manage.
Producers decide what to use for packaging and they have no incentive to reduce, to eliminate toxic chemicals, or to design with recyclability in mind. Packaging producers continue to develop ‘new’ packaging which is often more complex. To get to a circular economy, we must standardize packaging, make it less complex, and get toxic chemicals out.
What will it do?
How does it work?
Brand owners pay a fee for the type and amount of packaging material they use. The fees are “eco-modulated” to incentivize reducing and redesigning packaging to make it more recyclable, compostable, or reusable.
Is this something new?
No, it’s already in use in the entire European Union and five Canadian provinces. Maine and Oregon passed EPR for Packaging bills in 2021.
How are fees used?
Increase* Reuse * Recycling * Recyclability * Recycled content
Decrease * Confusion * Contamination * Toxic chemicals
Ae you cuious about how many pounds of plastic film were collected in the first year of the plastic film recycling program in Mankato, North Mankato and Lake Crystal? Here are two stories that tell about it. The first is a video clip from KEYC. The second is from the Mankato Free Press.
To view the video, click here.
To read the Free Press article, click here.
https://mankatomagazine-cnhi.newsmemory.com/
Mankato Magazine April 2022 A Natalie Rademaker
https://mankatofreepress-cnhi.newsmemory.com/ Sunday, August 30, 2020 Compost Girl: Young Entrepeneur Helps Neighbors Go Green
https://mankatofreepress-cnhi.newsmemory.com/ Thursday, May 6 2021 Plastic Drop-Off: Efforts Urge Recycling of Bags, Packaging
https://mankatofreepress-cnhi.newsmemory.com/ Wednesday, October 20,2021 Right Thing: Senior Living Facility Conducts Unusual, Robust Composting System
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 Board Oks Good Thunder Compost facility to Start back Up
https://mankatofreepress-cnhi.newsmemory.com/ Sunday, June 19, 2022 Compost Business Rebounds