More than 45 tons of waste once headed for dumpsters instead will be recycled or composted at five Washington County government buildings this year, and now the effort is growing.

The county's success at reducing large-scale trash collections came in an employee program known as Divert 70, which includes innovations such as removing trash containers from desks, using color-coded recycling stations and reporting progress to employees to keep them interested.

In 2015, the county plans to increase recycling at county locations frequented by the public, including parks, meeting rooms and the cafeteria at the main county campus in Stillwater.

"Employees are really engaged, and they want to make a difference," said Judy Hunter, the county planner coordinating Divert 70.

More than 1,200 county employees have participated in Divert 70, which aims to recycle 70 percent of waste. The estimated 45 tons that will be sent to recycling and composting will far surpass that goal, representing 83 percent of all waste produced in county offices this year.

Eventually Divert 70 will expand to inmates in the county jail, where a vendor prepares meals for inmates. The same vendor, CBM Managed Services, also supplies food for the public cafeteria.

Pauline Samb, who oversees the food service, said scraps from about 3,360 jail meals a week have gone to a local hog farmer for 15 years. Efficiencies over the years have reduced the food waste to a 40-gallon container, which also includes the public cafeteria in the county offices portion of the campus, she said.

The kitchen staff already recycles cardboard as well, she said.

"We're pretty good at what we do, I think," she said.

Jail Cmdr. Chuck Yetter said the Divert 70 program already is being followed in the administrative and roll call portions of the jail. Just how inmates will react when they're asked to sort meals into recycling bins after meals will be interesting to observe, he said.

'Ways to cut expenses'

County commissioners expressed interest in working with suppliers to eliminate nonrecyclable products at government buildings. They also want to see more recycling in the private sector to reduce garbage collections.

Commissioner Fran Miron said he's found "significant public interest" in business recycling.

Another commissioner, Lisa Weik, said the county has set a good example for businesses by "walking the talk," but she said recycling and composting also reduce business overhead.

"There are ways to cut expenses on a monthly basis, both residential and commercial, and one easy way is to just not generate any trash," she said. "That is a way, actually, to dramatically cut costs."

Toward that end, Washington and Ramsey counties started a program known as BizRecycling a few years ago to provide free resources to businesses that want to reduce waste. A state law enacted this year requires most businesses in the metro area to have recycling for at least three types of material — paper, metal and plastic, for example — by Jan. 1, 2016. Under that law, counties are required to meet environmental goals.

One Washington County business, Chilkoot Cafe and Cyclery in Stillwater, has turned 21,000 pounds of trash into compost each year, according to BizRecycling. In Oak Park Heights, the Boutwells Landing senior living complex saved $5,976 in trash costs the first year by recycling 82 tons of food waste. Each year, nearly 25 tons of paper, bottles, and cans are recycled at Boutwells Landing. That's the equivalent of about 191 pounds per resident per year, BizRecycling said.

Because the volume of trash at the Stillwater campus has been reduced so substantially, Hunter said, fewer dumpsters are needed and new contracts will be negotiated with waste haulers.

The last time the county contracted with waste haulers was in 2010. New contracts will seek services for 16 locations outside Stillwater, including county service centers in Woodbury, Forest Lake and Cottage Grove, maintenance shops, and the Environmental Center in Woodbury.

New contracts should be in place by January, Hunter said.

Kevin Giles • 651-925-5037