All the people and animals make a lot of waste, and keeping the fair clean is a round-the- clock job. Some pick up trash and empty those white barrels; others haul away manure, corncobs and recyclables. And let's all say thanks to those who empty the portable toilets.
When you gather 120,000 people or so and hundreds of animals in a few hundred acres each day, there will be leftovers — trash, food waste, dung both human and animal, card- board and grease, to name a few. Some of the waste gets reused in some way; at the 2019 fair, about 50 tons of glass, plastic and aluminum were collected and recycled, and thousands of tons of animal manure is composted into fertilizer. At the Corn Roast, diners can finish off a cob and then toss it into a giant bin, which is hauled to a commercial composting facility. Cleaning up is a 24/7 affair, from sweeping the streets to sucking the waste out of the portable toilets. We can't all be the dairy princess, but there's a role for everyone in beautifying the fair.
A young fairgoer gets a close-up look at a manure pile left behind by livestock near the cattle barn.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
This discarded cup will be disposed of properly thanks to crews and volunteers who work 24 hours a day to keep the grounds as clean as possible.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
An employee from the Fresh French Fries booth near the Midway squeegees away rainwater mixed with whatever else was on the concrete.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
On average, 2,000 tons of manure at the Minnesota State Fair are collected and shared with the University of Minnesota agriculture programs each year.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Bags filled with recyclables are piled inside the sanitation area at the Minnesota State Fair, a spot not easily visible to fairgoers, except, perhaps, for those on the Sky Glider.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
On average, 25,000 corn cobs are discarded each day, most in compost receptacles like this.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
On average, 25,000 corn cobs are discarded each day at the fair.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Some corn cobs don't make it into the composting bins.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
A bin full of corn cobs near the Giant Slide.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
A haul-away recycling receptacle in the sanitation area is overflowing with plastics.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Volunteer garbage pickers use tools like this to snap up refuse from the grounds.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
A fairgoer with a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies leaps over a gutter filled with rainwater, discarded lemon halves and other waste.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shortly after closing, fairgoers gather on the corner near O'Gara's while street cleaning crews begin preparing the grounds for re-opening.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Waste that didn't make it in to a receptacle sits on the wet ground.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Kevin Hanson, an employee with Jimmy's Johnny's, an LRS Company, uses a portable restroom service truck to suck out waste from a multi-stall restroom trailer next to O'Gara's at the Minnesota State Fair. The underground tank holds 2,000 gallons of waste, which needs to be emptied up to three times a day.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
A recycling bin in the maintenance area at the Minnesota State Fair. As soon as the Fair's fireworks show concludes, overnight sanitation crews, including the street sweeper trucks in the upper left, begin cleanup.
