VIRGINIA — It was unseasonably cold and windy, which was perfect for this year’s Earth Fest, an annual indoor expo hosted and organized by the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability.
“Last year, it was on a beautiful day,” said Missy Roach, who helped organize the event, “and attendance was low.”
Roach was excited to see all the people who attended the event on Saturday, and booths mostly filled up the main arena at the Iron Trail Motors Event Center.
Visitors had the chance to spend the day learning what they could do to make our future something their children and grandchildren can be proud of. Major topics for this year’s event were e-waste recycling, composting, and the importance of spending time outdoors for both children and adults.
There were also collections for electronic waste, old cellphones, and lead fishing tackle.
Attendees had the chance to visit with vendors selling solar panels and other energy-efficiency improvements for homes, sign up for free energy bill consultations, purchase locally made foods and crafts, and learn about area history, climate change, gardening, recycling, area recreation, and educational opportunities. Two area scouts from Troop 4129 in Virginia, Bryce and Tanner Crotteau, were selling trees that will be planted in Superior National Forest, with the proceeds helping to sponsor their trip to the national Boy Scout Jamboree this summer.
State and county agencies had booths promoting conservation, aquatic invasive species prevention, and recycling. A large display gave visitors great ideas on how to reduce their use of single-use plastics. Children’s activities included lots of hands-on fun, such as several gardening-related activities, crafts, and a chance to use an old-fashioned metal stamp to create a pendant. A full-size electric pickup truck was on display.

Large-scale composting
The day included six hour-long talks on related topics, including one on the feasibility of starting larger-scale composting. Carson Becicka, who is a masters’ degree student at the University of Minnesota, is working on a study looking at the feasibility of composting. He is working with the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability, who received a three-year grant to study options and create an action plan.
Organic waste makes up about 31 percent of the waste stream in the area. Composting would divert the organic matter, keeping it out of landfills, and creating a usable end product: fertilizer. Studies estimate that over 16,000 tons of organic waste is generated in northern St. Louis County each year.
“Landfilling organic waste is expensive,” Becicka said, and the methane produced by decaying organics in the general waste stream is creating a warmer planet. The closure of a large landfill that was serving Duluth this summer means more waste will be trucked up to the Virginia landfill, which will shorten the life of that facility.
“Composting is a solution,” he said. “It supports local foods and creates more jobs than landfilling waste.”
Composting is also a way to be more self-reliant as a region, he said. “It’s a feel-good activity.”
While many people compost at home, composting at a larger scale would make a bigger impact, he noted.
The challenge is to understand the economic feasibility, staffing, and expertise needed, as well as transportation costs, he said.
Another factor would be community interest, something not known at this time.
Becicka said they are looking at plans that would take advantage of empty delivery trucks on their home trip, such as the trucks delivering garbage to the Virginia landfill from Duluth, making the trip back with an empty load, focusing on smaller community composting sites, and ways to change the economics of composting so it is economically feasible.
There are also public policy tools, such as changes to the county’s waste ordinances, tipping fees, and use of tax levies.

Earth Fest
Earth Fest is an annual event initiated by the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability. It is the largest sustainability fair on the Range, attracting over a thousand participants. Earth Fest connects people from all over the Range around topics that foster a future that our children can be proud of. What do we need to do in order to leave the Iron Range in better shape than we found it? How can we meet our needs without compromising our grandchildren’s ability to meet theirs? That’s the question we address at Earth Fest. We invite you to join the larger conversation. Learn more at https://www.irpsmn.org/.

Recycling in
St. Louis County
Top ten things to remember about St. Louis County recycling:
 Plastic recycling is limited to #1 and #2 items (check the marking on the bottom of plastic containers). Dairy is mostly in #5, not recyclable, and Styrofoam is not recyclable here.
 Clean plastic bags and plastic wrapping aren’t recyclable through the county, but these items can be recycled at Super One and Target, for example. They must be clean and dry. Containers for oily or moist foods are not recyclable, like salads, chips, and candy. And black plastic bags and plastic food wrap, are not accepted.
 Almost all kinds of paper and magazines are recyclable, except for wrapping paper and packing with plastic or waxy coated interiors, like milk cartons.
 All metal cans are recyclable, including pet food cans.
 Paper and plastic labels on containers do not need to be removed.
 Almost all the time, the plastic and metal lids on recyclables are also recyclable, but they need to remain attached to the container.
 All recycled items have to be clean (at least 95 percent), and if they aren’t, they have to be fished out by hand and put in regular garbage at the sorting center, so they don’t contaminate the rest of the lot.
 Sorting out non-qualified items in the recycling process costs 48 percent of the county’s recycling budget.
 When you put your recycling out in plastic bags, someone has to take the extra time to empty the bag and throw it away. If they miss one, it can clog the facility machinery.
 The county has the capacity to process 240 percent more recyclables that what they are currently doing (12,000 tons instead of 5,000 tons per year). More recycling generates more sales and revenue for the county and reduces the size of the landfills the county has to maintain.