Are you happy with your trash, recycling and composting options?

The winner of the Green City award last year was San Jose, Calif.. They recycle 71 percent of their garbage and aim to be a zero waste city.

How does that compare with us here?

Overall, Minnesota is a recycling leader as a state with 41 percent of our garbage being recycled. But our biggest city lags behind with a feeble 17 percent rate that Minneapolis hopes to boost to 35 percent with a new, simpler recycling system.

How easy is it to recycle in your city, suburb or town? Do you wish you had more options? We’re talking about big trash at 11:20 a.m. today.

(Waste bins separating recyclables, compost and trash are seen at the Summer X Games, July 28, 2011 outside the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck)

–Stephanie Curtis, social media host

About the blogger

Stephanie Curtis

scurtis@mpr.org • @stephcurtis

Stephanie Curtis has produced events, daily news shows, documentaries, conferences and call-ins for MPR News. She also was among the pioneering producers who launched The Current. You can hear her discuss movies every Thursday on The Cube Critics.

Dan locker

Much of our trash in the twin cities is being burned, so any reduction may reduce the amount of “fuel” that will be available to burn.
Brian Ernste

My family tries to recycle as much as possible. I would say we’re currently recycling about 75% of our waste. We have the largest recycling container and the smallest garbage bin that is picked up for us.

I would like to see more encouragement in composting. There is a lot of food waste that gets thrown away now. It would be great if a city or county would give a rebate to people who purchase a compost bin, worm bin, or whatever system they need. Similar program to installing energy efficient appliances, windows, doors, or insulation. A small program like that could go a long way in reducing trash.
Katrina Mitchell

We are active recyclers, filling and often over-filling our four recycling bins each week. Our landlords let us use their backyard composter and most of our food scrap goes in that. We would love a way to compost those items that are compostable, but not appropriate for the backyard compost. I understand that curbside pickup isn’t an option now, but I’d be happy with a reasonably local drop-off point for composting. What if the city and the park board partnered to establish compost drop-off points at the neighborhood parks? That would be amazing!