Reuse Minnesota members and guests pose in front of a shipping container at WLSSD. The container houses items for reuse dropped off from the community.
Crisp clear Northern Minnesota air, tours of a reuse facility and a unique building restoration, and serious talk about forever chemical flame retardants in mattresses are examples of what participants find at quarterly member meetings and excursions sponsored by Reuse Minnesota. The latest, May 30 in Duluth, featured a talk, two tours and networking over lunch.
Carmen Paredes Dockry of Mano a Mano International, which re-homes medical supplies and equipment from Minnesota to Brazil, commented that Reuse Minnesota functions get their small organization out to events and places that would not otherwise be affordable or available.
Emily Barker shares updates on Reuse Minnesota's programming.
“It’s refreshing,” said Sue Doll, solid waste specialist from Anoka County, commenting that this is a group she connects with tangentially in her work. “It’s amazing how many businesses there are in reuse.”
Loose Parts Laboratory’s team learned a lot, as a startup business, through other members and trainings and webinars offered by Reuse Minnesota.
These spontaneous testimonials came out in the first hour or so of the meeting which talked about all Reuse Minnesota’s upcoming events and offerings. Then participants promoted their own events, shared things that they learned recently, announced job openings and other opportunities.
NRRI
Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota - Duluth hosted and presented information about new product and process developments plus reuse measurement. Victor Krause, NRRI Senior Research Scientist, and Shawn Dolan from Second Chance Mattress Recycling, a program of Emerge, talked about markets for the clean metals and wood frames from the mattresses Second Chance disassembles. They asked the group to think about uses for the stuffing, and how to separate it into distinct categories to avoid contamination of each commodity. That’s where the PFAS question came up. “NRRI is on the forefront of mitigating PFAS,” Krause assured the group.
Victor Krause, NRRI and Shawn Dolan, Second Chance Recycling talk about their statewide diversion of furniture and mattress waste pilots.
WLSSD
Next stop was over the hill and down the road to the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District’s Materials Recovery Center, next to its closed landfill, where people can drop off many items for recycling. In several separate buildings or containers, folks pay (at the gate, by approximate weight and type) to drop reusable household and construction items which others take free. They limit the amount of time and number of items taken to spread the good stuff around and keep the line moving.
When the landfill was consolidated in its current location some 1948 newspapers found there were still readable, saved to demonstrate how slowly materials degrade.
Staff explained the many different places that specific categories of recyclables go.
Guests get a tour of WLSSD, learning about the Materials Recovery Center and its drop off services.
Lunch and discoveries
Some of us discovered the Duluth Gear Exchange after a brief lunch at the Whole Foods Co-op. The store sells secondhand outdoor gear and clothing. The other lunch bunch went to Dovetail Café and could stop by the Duluth Folk School or Ren Market, “a friendly little boutique for zero waste, environmentally conscious living in Duluth, MN” which is about to launch its online store.
Duluth Gear Exchange sells outdoor gear on consignment and offers mending services.
Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps
To get folks thinking about reuse of buildings, the Reuse Minnesota group visited a two-story structure, made primarily of concrete, which served as executive offices and the staging area for trades necessary to building and keeping up the (also concrete) homes of the company town that housed US Steel workers from the planning in 1913 through 1933. Most recently the building was owned by a group of small businesses. Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps is rehabbing it into its own headquarters and eventually a tool lending library and other initiatives related to its mission of developing enduring workforce and life skills through service learning in historic preservation and community stewardship.
Charley Langowski with Northern Bedrock shares the vision for the space and offers some history on the space.
Next event
The next member meeting will be in the Twin Cities east metro area (St. Paul or suburbs) on August 14. Under a new membership structure introduced recently, folks thinking of joining may attend two member meetings to check it out before joining. There will be a $10 to $15 charge for the associated tours (tours free for members). There are other Reuse Minnesota-sponsored events that are free to attend thanks to grant funding. Join the 120 passionate reuse advocates, supporters and organizations at reusemn.org.
Written by Margo Ashmore
