In Mears Park, a place to toss the recyclables -- not the trash

A public recycling program reaches Mears Park in Lowertown, and the hope is artistic containers will attract recyclables and keep garbage out.

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: June 25, 2009 - 11:29 PM

Four creative containers will be unveiled today in Mears Park.

Put your recyclables -- and only recyclables -- in them.

The Lowertown park is the third location to take part in an experiment by St. Paul and Eureka Recycling to see whether so-called public space recycling can be cost effective and help the environment.

People will be able to recycle aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles.

Similar recycling programs elsewhere aren't showing much success, said Susan Hubbard, CEO of Eureka. The problem, she said, is that too much garbage gets mixed in with cans or glass and the cost of sorting it out takes away from the benefits. For instance, a 2007 pilot program in New York City showed a garbage contamination rate of 37 percent for can and bottle recycling.

So in an effort to be more successful, the St. Paul program has focused on taking different approaches to different locations.

St. Paul has set a goal to be waste free by 2020.

"We're trying to be a national leader in public space recycling," said Parks and Recreation spokesman Brad Meyer.

The idea to put recycling bins in public areas bubbled up during a community process, the St. Paul Environmental Roundtable, in 2005.

The experiment started last summer at the city-owned Como Zoo.

The zoo, which attracts nearly 2 million people each year, kicked in about $8,000 last year to buy 10 containers.

Recycling containers also were placed in the picnic pavilions at various parks.

"The key of what we've learned is that there's still a lot of stuff we don't know," Hubbard said. At Como, more signs and a few more containers reduced the garbage contamination rate to 5 percent, which is manageable, she said.

Public Art St. Paul commissioned two artists, Seitu Jones and Marcus Young, to come up with the container designs.

Most of the costs for the experiment are being covered by Eureka, which received about $60,000 in grants.

Eureka already has a contract to do all of the city's recycling so there's no additional pick-up costs. There is a modest cost in having city workers round up the stuff from containers and take it to the regular pick-up spot, Hubbard said.

Results at Mears Park will be monitored, just as with Como and the picnic pavilions, to see if the results justify the costs and actually help the environment.

"It's not just so people feel good at parks," Hubbard said.

Chris Havens • 612-673-4148

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