A small army of workers from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Guthrie Theater and Arc's Value Village used cranes and lifts on a recent day to clothe Paul Bunyan.
The 20-foot-tall model of the lumberjack, complete with his ax, debuts Thursday at the State Fair to show Minnesotans how apparel can be recycled so it doesn't end up in landfills.
The exhibit is the latest for the MPCA, which is known for its creative recycling displays. Last year, it built a "bagnado" out of discarded plastic grocery bags. In 2014, it made a wad of tossed paper that was so big it made the Guinness World Records. In 2013, it built entire rooms out of pop cans.
The idea is to highlight a different "problem area" every year in which Minnesotans can do a better job of recycling. This year, Bunyan is a teaching tower on how to dispose of clothes and textiles in a way that's better for the environment.
"Minnesotans throw away 12 grocery carts full of clothing and textiles every minute," said MPCA spokeswoman Pam McCurdy. In all, "136,000 tons are thrown away each year and go into landfills."
But old clothes, towels and sheets can be reused and converted into new ingredients for manufacturers, adding $43.5 million to Minnesota's economy each year in the form of jobs, inventory and transportation spending, said Wayne Gjerde, MPCA's recycling market development manager.
"That's an economic value of $119,000 a day," he said. "So please don't throw away jobs by throwing away your textiles. We only recycle 15 percent of all our textiles and we would like to get that much higher and recirculated back into the economy."
To drive that message home, MPCA educator Jeanne Giernet and Alicia Wold, costume designer and director of the Guthrie Theater's costume rentals unit, were recently up at dawn and up in the rafters dressing Paul Bunyan at the Eco Experience building near Snelling Avenue.