Drive to Coon Rapids with your styrofoam...

Star Tribune Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:53:23 GMT
Coon Rapids redefines recycling

Coon Rapids has become a unique destination for people looking to recycle Styrofoam and many types of plastics. Bill Moe took his grandson by the hand and explained to the little boy, Gavin Legore, how this whole recycling thing works: You match the container to the correct bin based on the number that is printed on the container's bottom. "This one says number three, see? So it goes in here," Moe said. It's the kind of scene that is typical on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, where people drop by to drop off recyclables of all kinds. These days, people are dropping off a lot of material that used to go in the trash. In January, the city became a unique destination for people looking to recycle Styrofoam and most every form of plastic, including much of what other municipal recycling centers and private companies don't accept. That massive, molded piece of Styrofoam that cushioned your new flat-screen TV? Coon Rapids will take it and other "expanded polystyrene," as long as it's clean and unmarked by tape or labels. Those yogurt and cottage cheese containers? Yup. Plus cat litter containers and other types of plastic marked with the numbers 1-6. Most municipalities and private companies accept only numbers 1 and 2. "Thank goodness," Moe said of his city's progressive new attitude toward recycling. "All we've ever done with it in the past is throw it out." Moe and the other hundreds of people who use the recycling center have Colleen Sinclair to thank for it. She is the city's recycling coordinator and the one responsible for reaching out to companies who will take the stuff.

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