Recyclables Lowers the Cost of Garbage Bills

When you bring your recyclables to the Olmsted Waste to Energy plant you are helping to lower the cost of garbage bills.  The recyclables that you put in the curbside containers become the property of your trash collectors.  However, when you bring your recyclables to the OWEF they are sold and the income is used to reduce the cost of operations.  I take my recyclables to the OWEF and find it is easy and does not take much time.  Here are the recent prices that Olmsted gets for our recyclable materials:

Corrugated Cardboard            $100/ton

Mixed paper                              $60/ton

Office paper (white)                 $185/ton

Tin/steel cans                            $160/ton

Clear Glass                                 $25/ton

Colored Glass                            $25/ton

Plastic Combined 1,2,5            $150/ton

Aluminum                                  $0.97/pound

 

Cannabis

I voted with the County Board to establish the first ordinance on registering cannabis businesses.  After the State does background checks and approves applicants for a License, the county can proceed with its plans to Register operators.  There are several levels of licenses which include Retailers, Microbusiness, and Mezzobusiness.  (Medical Marijuana businesses are separate from this process.)  The County will register 14 applicants: 8 Microbusiness, 4 Retailors, and 2 Mezzobusinesses.  These were allotted in proportion to the applications.  Application will be accepted during a 10 business day period to be determined; the opening and closing date will be posted on the Olmsted County website.

 

Olmsted will create a lottery process to determine which applicants will be awarded a registration.  Applicants will have 6 months (with a possible 90 day extension) to open their business.  Applications for the lottery are now posted on Olmsted’s website:  https://www.olmstedcounty.gov/government/county-news-events/county-news/Olmsted-County-announces-cannabis-retailer-registration-lottery-process

 

Cannabis Ordinances

Cannabis ordinances will soon be available on the Olmsted County website.  I will provide a link when they become available.

 

Soil Health And Ground Water Protection

I have continued to support Olmsted County’s efforts to establish farming practices that will sustain healthy soil into the future while protecting our groundwater from infiltration of nitrates and other chemicals.  The two pictures of the two fields next to each other help to demonstrate the importance of Olmsted’s Soil and Water work.

These two photos were taken on May 15, 2025, in Southeastern Olmsted County during a 40-50 mph wind.  The camera is in a road between two fields.  The first picture shows a field that is participating in the county’s Soil Health and Groundwater Protection Program that has been planted with a cover crop.  The camera is then turned 180 degrees to show a field that is not participating in Olmsted’s program.  These two pictures show the importance of the work Olmsted is doing.  Olmsted’s Soil Health program not only protects the soil (which cannot be replaced) from wind erosion but also provides nutrients for the next crop that will be planted.