REFUSE * REDUCE * REUSE * RECYCLE
We live within a world of interconnected biological communities and on an earth filled with finite resources. Organisms and physical processes help circulate earth’s material resources through numerous cycles to make available the ‘wastes’ of one organism as ‘food’ for another. Imagine what the Greater Northfield area might look like if we saw our human defined ‘trash’ as a resource, strongly connected to these ever present cycles or as inputs for new cycles.
Northfield Zero Waste Plan
The Northfield Zero Waste Plan is a key policy for the future of Materials & Resources in Northfield. A paraphrased version of the full plan can be found on the Zero Waste Plan website.
Cannon Valley Makers
Our goal is to create a community of makers who are connected by their common interests and different experiences. Members will come together through the work and projects they pursue. They will teach and learn while sharing space and equipment. We will bring together skilled mentors and aspiring makers. We hope to foster a flow of information and ideas driven by questions and informed by creative exploration.
We know that members will enrich their lives through their experiences and successes as makers. We believe that the Cannon Valley Makers is embedded in the tradition of making things using our hands and our minds in unison, thereby deepening our relation to the world we inhabit.
Contact: https://pages.stolaf.edu/cannonvalleymakers/contact/
City of Northfield
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), garbage and recycling, is collected curbside under a contract with DSI (Dick’s Sanitation Inc).
Residents may take all yard wastes, including brush, branches and shrubbery, to the city’s compost site, just south of Sechler Park, during scheduled hours in April through October. Finished compost is available for pickup at the site.
The Wastewater Division maintains a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility, as well as the sewer main that carries wastewater from homes and businesses in Northfield and Dundas to the facility. The facility has a continuous discharge to the Cannon River, designed at 3 to 5 million gallons per day depending on the weather. Various forms of nitrogen as well as phosphorous are removed from the water through physical, chemical and biological process to reduce pollution of our local waterways. The facility produces exceptional quality biosolids which are stored on site and land applied two to three times per year.
Contact: David Bennett – Public Works Director, 507-645-3006=
Rice County Solid Waste Facility
The mission of the Rice County Solid Waste Facility is to properly collect and safely dispose of waste generated by the residents and businesses of Rice County in a manner that is environmentally safe. Our natural resources are limited and materials can be remanufactured into new products rather than used once and stored forever in a landfill. Now that recycling has become a way of life for most of us, we need to focus more on REDUCTION of waste and REUSE of items so as to stop waste before it starts.
Contact: RCSolidWaste@co.rice.mn.us (507) 332-6833
Northfield Curbside Composting
Northfield Curbside Composting is a group of passionate young people dedicated to finding local solutions to environmental and social issues. Their mission is to reduce waste filling up the Rice County landfill and lower local greenhouse gas emissions, while creating quality local jobs and providing an excellent service for their customers.
To sign up for Northfield Curbside Composting’s services, visit their website.
Contact: 507-581-2494, northfieldcomposting@gmail.com, https://www.facebook.com/Nfldcompostcoop/