Chasing after a plastic tumbleweed

McLeod County Solid Waste Coordinator called an upward trend in the use of plastics in agriculture a “plastic tumbleweed” that we have to chase after.
It isn’t just ag plastics, and Young’s words aren’t just an analogy. Look down any residential street these days, and you don’t see newspaper and an occasional tin can blowing around. It’s plastic bags from the big-box retailers and grocers, and plastic pop bottles.
Plastics have taken over our culture. At last week’s forum on agricultural plastic, both state Ag Commissioner Dave Frederickson and Brita Sailer of the Minnesota Recycling Association had something to say about the explosion of the plastics market.
Frederickson said that the wave of the future of plastics was predicted as early as the 1960s, when Dustin Hoffmann’s character in “The Graduate” was admonished to “think plastics” when pursuing a career.
Sailer said that these days, everyone eats breakfast out of plastic, “even the cows.”
McLeod County recyclers already do a pretty good job of recycling most plastics, although those plastic bags are problematic. Those are so difficult to keep a handle on that we’re asked not to recycle them curbside, but take them to the recycling center or back to stores that collect.
We appreciate that McLeod County wants to take a leadership role when it comes to recycling such items as agricultural plastic and boat wrap. There’s a huge need to find ways to reuse items that do not decompose and clutter up our landfills.
On the other hand, we ask the county to proceed with caution. It has barely finished a major retrofit project to accommodate single-sort recycling. That project has pretty much captured the solid waste abatement fund for the next several years.
The recycling of ag plastic and boat wrap may well take more equipment and more building space. We are heartened that grants are already being pursued.
And, as Commissioner Paul Wright pointed out, McLeod County cannot take on this effort without cooperation from its neighbors, the state and maybe even the federal government.
We need to continue to pursue this, but we need to make sure it’s affordable for our county.
So, again, be cautious while chasing that tumbleweed.