Do you know where your trash goes?
Have you ever wondered where your trash goes after setting it on the curb or dropping it down a trash chute? Ramsey and Washington counties work together to manage waste through an organization called Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy (R&E). R&E operates the Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy Center (R&E Center), which processes all trash from the two counties to recover materials and divert waste from landfills.
The R&E Center, located in Newport, processes over 400,000 tons of trash each year - enough trash to fill Allianz Field 19 times.
Equipment at the R&E Center sorts through the trash to recover materials, like metals, for recycling. The trash that is left over is turned into a fuel and used to make electricity. On average, the R&E Center produces enough fuel to power 12,500 homes per year. R&E continues to explore new technologies to recover even more value from the trash, including a process that will take our residential food scrap waste and turn it into a renewable natural gas.
Additionally, R&E offers programs to help residents and businesses reduce waste and recycle better. These include BizRecycling and deconstruction grants, and the new food scraps pickup program starting to be available in 2023.
See how your trash is collected and processed to maximize resource recovery.
Want to learn more about waste management in Ramsey County? Tour the R&E Center. Tours are free and generally run between 1-1.5 hours.
This article is featured in Green Ramsey, an environmental health newsletter from Ramsey County.
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