Column: Solid Waste Officer, by Randy Tuchtenhagen

After nearly 16 years working for Freeborn County there have been a few changes recently with my job. When considering a retirement option we also explored a part time position that involved working only on solid waste and recycling. That seemed attractive to me since it was what I was hired to do in the beginning and enjoyed. I have given up being a department head and other duties and in the future will be working half time doing only solid waste. I can see already I’ll have more than enough to do.

For many years I have been writing articles like this one about solid waste and recycling, doing radio ads to promote programs, offering a booth at the County Fair and the Home and Recreation Show, and providing programs for our civic clubs, church groups and schools about recycling and solid waste disposal. I was also “on site” with disposal issues, promoting our household hazardous waste and electronics collection programs and investigating dumping and disposal problems. I hope to continue doing those things as public education involves teaching, something I went to college for and enjoyed for many years.

Freeborn County has a written plan that describes our solid waste hierarchy and how the system works. For example when the Waste Management transfer station burned down a couple of years ago the plan we had in place described what options were available to prevent interruption to the flow of garbage. We had already studied scenarios and possible disasters, the “what ifs” and “what will happen” and the system worked. It’s not that we delegated or interfered in any way with haulers, but we had already considered circumstances such as this, and our plan had addressed this type of emergency and the response. The Solid Waste Management Plan is due for an update, and I will be working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, local businesses and our office staff in coming months to complete the update. We need to explore how future funding will be provided, consider potential changes in waste and recycling, and explore ideas for decreasing waste.

We have a program for small businesses that will allow them to be part of the residential recycling collection. For an annual fee a small business (church, agency, business) can have curbside recycling collection every other week like homeowners. The truck will stop and pick up materials just like they do in residential areas. If your business is interested in recycling please call our office, and we can help you set up a waste reduction program that could save money. Look at your business waste and see if you should have recycling containers instead of trash cans.

Randy Tuchtenhagen is the Freeborn County solid waste officer.