ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Convenience stores in the St. Cloud, Minn., area soon will offer customers a chance to recycle their old soda containers instead of throwing them into the trash, said the Associated Press. The program, called Message in a Bottle, starts next week at some c-stores.
Sponsored by the Tri-County Solid Waste Commission and the nonprofit Recycling Association of Minnesota, as well as local beverage distributors and convenience stores, the program "provides an opportunity to recycle where there isn't one currently," Doug Lien, solid waste planner with the Tri-County Solid [image-nocss] Waste Commission, told AP.
The program starts Tuesday to correspond with Earth Day; 10 Little Dukes, Holiday Stationstores and SuperAmerica c-stores will get bins that resemble a giant soda bottle, Ellen Telander, executive director of the Recycling Association of Minnesota, told AP. She said the goal is to get "every convenience store signed up and going by the end of the year."
A similar program started in Hutchinson, Minn., about a year ago as an effort to disprove skeptics who thought it couldn't work.
In St. Cloud, the Waite Park, Minn.-based nonprofit WACOSA, which provides jobs for the disabled, will collect and sort the cans and bottles, which will be sold to Python's recycling center.
"I think it's going to work out very well for us," said Kris Pflepsen, WACOSA executive director. The jobs will be targeted for employees who face the most serious challenges, she said.
Telander said the program will receive grant funding for the first year to help pay for startup costs, then should be self-sustaining.
C-stores like the program because it helps them reduce their garbage, AP said. Plastic bottles probably make up the largest portion of the trash at a Holiday Stationstore location in Waite Park, manager Laurie Malikowski said. "I think it's a good idea," she said. "Everybody needs to help keep the Earth green."Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.