Author: Winneshiek Waste

Happy Friday everyone! As we head into the weekend, I wanted to provide some tips on how you can help the team at the recycling center.

1. For the safety of the staff, please don’t bag your recyclable materials. Bagged materials are sent to the landfill because the recycling team cannot identify the items.

2. Please ensure that your plastic beverage containers are empty when you place them in the plastic bin. Any beverage container that contains liquid will be sent to the landfill.

3. Only recycle hard plastics and ensure that they are marked with a #1 or #2. We can only recycle plastics marked with a #1 or #2 in Winneshiek County.

4. Please do not place soft plastic bags in our recycling bins. We cannot recycle them in Winneshiek County.

5. Please avoid placing screws, nails, and bolts in recycling bins. They can damage equipment. Please collect these items in a small container and bring them to the recycling center during business hours to give to the staff.

Enjoy your Friday and thanks to all of you that reuse or recycle waste materials! Keep up the good work!

Rotten potatoes were found in the paper bin today at the recycling center. Please do not place food scraps in recycling bins. We cannot recycle them! Rotten potatoes belong in a compost pile! Here are some tips for starting a compost pile for folks that have never had one before:

• Build the pile with green and brown materials of approximately equal volume. Kitchen scraps (remember, no meat) and grass clipping are examples of green materials. Dry leaves, cardboard, newspapers, and wood chips are examples of browns.
• You can add materials any time. Remember to always bury fresh kitchen scraps in the middle of the pile, covering them with partially decomposed material. No meat, bones, or fish should be included.
• Chop or shred materials, especially if they are dry or woody
• Turn the pile
• Keep the pile moist to accelerate the composting process
• Finished compost is dark brown, crumbly, and moist, with a pleasant, earthy aroma. Large pieces can be screened out and returned to a fresh pile.
• You can use your compost as a soil amendment by digging it into the earth, as a mulch by spreading it around plants, or as an ingredient in potting mix.

NICC Green Iowa AmeriCorps is hosting a denim/sneaker drive at NICC for folks to bring in their old, worn, ripped denim or sneakers that can’t be donated/reworn. After these items are collected, they will be recycled into a new material! Green Iowa AmeriCorps will have a bin available at the Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 22nd. The event is taking place at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds in the Community Building from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Come check out their table and visit with many other organizations that will be present. Find more information about the event here:

In case you didn’t know, today is World Water Day! We are very fortunate to have access to clean water in our area, so let’s conserve this precious resource whenever possible. One way to use less water at home is by harvesting rain water with a rain barrel and using that rain water on your lawn or garden. This is also a fantastic way to repurpose a plastic barrel! If you are interesting in building your own rain barrel, Winneshiek County Conservation and Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) are holding a workshop on April 13th at 5:30 PM in the Lake Meyer Campground Shop. Registration is required and there is a fee for the materials. To find out more about this event, visit WCC’s website by clicking on the link below!

Did you know that tomorrow is Global Recycling Day? Global Recycling Day was created in 2018 to raise awareness about the value of our natural resources and how we can protect them by recycling more. It’s essential that people think about waste as resources when we look at the materials around us. Have a great weekend, and please remember to recycle those valuable resources!

Sorting your materials at the recycling center is extremely important. If products are placed in the wrong bins, it takes a lot more time for employees to dig through them and put them in the appropriate containers. If the majority of the load is composed of unrecyclable materials, the entire load might have to be thrown away. These items were recently found in the paper bin. Some of these materials have the potential to get caught in machines and damage them. Throwing all these various waste materials into a paper recycling bin is unacceptable. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to sort their materials properly. We greatly appreciate your efforts! Keep up the good work!

How to dispose of them properly:

1. Place the sharps/used needles in puncture resistant containers. Laundry detergent, fabric softener, coffee can, or red sharps containers work great. Red sharps containers can be purchased at your pharmacy.

2. Once the container is full, ensure that the lid is TAPED SHUT.

3. Place the container in the red mailbox by the Smith Building door at This service is FREE!

Never put sharps in your trash or recycling bins and don’t flush them down the toilet! Disposing of these items improperly leads to a hazardous environment for employees and creates more work.

DON’T throw corrugated cardboard in the trash. Recycle it! Better yet, if you receive a gift that comes in a cardboard box this holiday season, reuse the box for another gift 🙂