A machine in the back of Friends Garbage Service roared Wednesday afternoon as six employees stood behind a conveyor belt sorting materials that passed by.
Michelle Friend, who owns the garbage and recycling business with her husband, Wade, watched the group work to diminish a heaping pile of recyclable items and sort them into bins of similar products in the company’s recycling building on Highway 53.
The process appeared tedious, but effective.
“We do this every afternoon,” Friend said.
The company is about two years into its recycling program, which launched in International Falls and has recently expanded to Littlefork and Northome. The company offers regular customers containers for their household recyclable items, and the company picks it up — all at no charge — allowing customers to reduce the the amount of garbage they generate and the company to take the recyclables to market.
“We’ve covered most of the area we service with the garbage service,” Friend said, adding the goal is to eventually include more remote areas such as Loman in its recycling project.
“It’s been very successful... The response has been just overwhelming, right from the beginning. And that’s primarily one of the reasons we did expand to Northome. We were getting calls constantly from people wanting to have that service... we worked with (Koochiching) county... we got containers where they used to have trailers... even that has been just a good response.”
The endeavor that keeps hundreds of thousands of pounds of aluminum cans, cardboard, magazines, plastic and paper materials out of the landfill, has been so successful that Friends’ numbers are more than double what the state averages for a rural recycling program – a feat they did expect to see two years into the project.
“When we first got into recycling, the stat was in rural areas if you can get 30-percent participation, that’s outstanding,” she said, noting the company has about 3,000 customers. “On our customer base right now, we’re at 63 percent... to me, that is phenomenal... It has been a program that has exceeded our expectations all the way around.”
A few challenges
Friend said unfortunately, there have been some challenges with the project, the most notable is coming across materials that cannot be recycled.
“Needles would be top of our list simply because it’s a safety issue,” Friend said. “That’s a high concern... (Needles) shouldn’t be going in the garbage can or the recycling can.”
Employees are required to wear cut-resistant gloves, among other safety wear, but even those don’t always prevent the puncture of a needle — which fortunately, Friend said hasn’t happened.
Still, the threat is there when needles make their way onto the conveyor belt.
“It’s a huge safety issue,” she said. “Most of the needles are capped, but it’s still a risk... and we have found some exposed.”
In addition, items like plastic bags, paper towels, napkins and kitty litter or other animal waste also creates a nuisance in the sorting process. As material goes through a machine to be sorted by one of Friends’ employees, plastic bags can get stuck and slow the system.
“We need (items) loose because it’s going on the conveyor,” she said.
Friend stressed plastic bags and the other items contribute to inconveniences, but it is the needles she’s most concerned about cutting out of the process.
“It goes back to the safety of our employees,” she said. “That’s our top concern.”
To educate customers where non-recyclable items are identified on a particular route, Friends has secured reminders to recycling containers in an effort to raise more awareness of the issues.
Moving forward
Regardless of the challenges, Friend continued highlighting the success of the recycling program that has added six employees to the business she and Wade have owned since 2003. The garbage service has been in the Friends family for more than 70 years.
“This recycling program continues to grow and see changes,” she said. “We’re always looking forward to the future... and are so appreciative of our customers.”
Questions about what is considered recyclable or to request a recycling bin, contact Friends at 283-3458.
