U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich U.S. Air Force Maj. Brady Augustin, right, receives the 2022 Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin at the Pentagon, Arlington, Va. Feb. 7. The flight safety award recognized Augustin’s outstanding feat of airmanship for safely performing a gear-up landing in his F-16 Fighting Falcon after losing landing gear.

NEW ULM — Brown County commingle recycling amounts have been rather steady in recent years after a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to River Valley Sanitation President Brent Kucera.

“We had a spike during COVID. Cardboard spiked rapidly with people ordering things from home that came in small boxes. Lots of people at home ordered Amazon stuff. There’s usually a slight (annual recycling) increase. Brown County is pretty good about recycling,” Kucera said.

Commingled recycling measured 2,400 tons in 2023, 2,295 in 2022 and 2,370 in 2021. Recycled tonnage for 2020 was not available.

There are many reasons to recycle.

Recycling materials into new products benefit the environment and economy. It reduces landfill waste.

U.S. recycling levels are currently at 21.4%, according to a Yale University study. If U.S. recycling levels reached 75%, it would be the environmental and carbon dioxide equivalent of removing 55 million cars from U.S. roads each year and generating 1.5 million new U.S. jobs.

“There is absolutely no other action available today that can have this type of simultaneous, positive impact on so many things critical to our existence on this plant,” according to Recycle Across America and Recycle Across the World, a non-profit organization dedicated to expediting environmental progress.

Brent Kucera, president of River View Sanitation (RVS) which serves 10 counties and 38 southern Minnesota communities, said Brown County residents may as well recycle since they’re paying annual recycling fees as assessments on their property taxes.

Annual recycling fees are $40 for curbside service in cities and towns and $20 in rural areas, according to the Brown County Auditor-Treasurers Office.

RVS picks up recycled items curbside and dumps loads at its New Ulm transfer station. Items are compacted and loaded into a compactor semi trailer and trucked to Dem-Con Recycling in Shakopee for sorting and sale.

Kucera said 11% of recycling material received is trash in the recycling stream.

“That’s pretty good, even phenomenal, compared to the rest of the United States,” he added.

“Cardboard makes up 24% of our commingled recycling. Paper is 35%, glass 16%,” said Kucera.

He said recycling prices are coming back after a few years of being really low.

“It’s (recycling prices) not great. You have to play for the long haul. It’s just the right thing to do. We keep getting better at it,” Kucera added.

“You go out to the landfill and see all the things that are recyclable. It’s a lot. Things like pop cans, bottles, paper and other things can could be recycled but are not,” he said.

Kucera said many people would rather pay extra (curbside fees) for an extra garbage can instead of recycling, which is already paid for through property taxes.

“That’s what people tell me. It’s mind-blowing. They just don’t want to sort it (for recycling). But most rural and small town folk care about it,” Kucera said.

RVS asks residents to clean recyclables before placing them into recycling containers.

Acceptable items include non-waxed cardboard, catalogs, cereal boxes, magazines, all colors of office/school paper, junk mail, newspapers/inserts, phone books, pizza delivery boxes, juice and milk cartons, plastic containers, aluminum cans, empty aerosol cans, steel food cans, clear/colored glass containers.

Unacceptable items include ceramics, #7 compostable plastic, diapers, dish ware, drinking glasses, food waste, glass bake ware/cookware (Pyrex), mirror glass, microwave trays, styrofoam, and window glass.