Clay County’s Shannon Thompson displays rechargeable items harboring dangerous lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium batteries — which should never be discarded with other household garbage. (Photo/Nancy Hanson.)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

One of Moorhead’s favorite “holidays” is just around the corner.
Not Christmas, though the chance to clean out the clutter seems like a gift. Not Halloween, though adult trick-or-treaters case the boulevards for goodies (or – boo! — leave messy “tricks” behind after recklessly digging through the discards.
But for the hard-working men of the city’s sanitation and street departments, it’s more like two weeks of Black Fridays.
Yes, Clean-Up Days are coming up. From May 6 through 10 and again May 13 through 17, the city’s householders can purge their basements, closets and attics of whatever has lingered, unloved, in their dusty shadows. For Oakport residents, the happy day is May 21. (Apartment residents, who already have access to spacious dumpsters 52 weeks per year, are not eligible of curbside pickups during the special weeks. Nor are commercial enterprises.)
Residents who prefer do-it-yourselfing can also haul junk they want to never see again to the Clay County Resource Recovery Center at 3322 15th Ave. N. From April 29 to May 18, the regular disposal fees will be paid by the city, rather than charged to individuals themselves.
It’s a little like magic. Set out your unwanted furniture, appliances, household goods and miscellany at the curb on the day your regular grey garbage bin – not your blue recycling container – is due to be collected. Presto! After the regular compactor truck reaches out its retractor arm to mechanically tip the your bin into the truck, the Moorhead Street Department will come along with a front-end loader to scoop up boxed discards according to their type … once for furniture and boxes stuffed with unwanted stuff, again for Freon-based refrigerators and freezers, and finally for other appliances and scrap metal.
But the process of dejunking isn’t quite as simple as Moorheaders have come to expect. Along with the city’s regular rules on what will and will not be collected, residents still need to master some new rules before they toss certain unwanted junk. Too, it’s good to mark the line between the city of Moorhead’s solid-waste collection, covered by the monthly waste management fee included in Moorhead Public Service bills, and disposal through Clay County, which operates the Resource Recovery Center on 15th Avenue North, where the community’s residential garbage ultimately ends up.
“Rechargeable batteries! They’re everywhere now, and they’re really dangerous,” Shannon Thompson emphasizes, pointing to the latest concern of waste management operations. “If they’re punctured or cracked, they start burning. They’ve become a real risk for us.”
Shannon, Clay County’s resource recovery specialist, points to the often-tiny batteries at the heart of everything that can be recharged. The composition of lithium ion and nickel-cadmium units not only permits all kinds of everyday tools to last close to forever when they’re plugged in overnight – when damaged or punctured, they risk starting truly impressive fires.
The 5-foot Shannon tells of one that started when a garbage trailer was being emptied onto the tipping floor: “The flames were higher than I am! That’s not something you want to see in a $21-million-dollar facility.” Fortunately, she says, equipment operator Sean Bucy was able to deftly separate the burning pile from the rest of the contents. “But the risk of fire becomes really dangerous when those batteries are thrown in with everything else.”
Rechargeable batteries, she notes, lurk in all kinds of often-unexpected places. They’re the key to rechargeable drills and tools, cordless toothbrushes, cellphones and tablets, toys, vacuums, Fitbits and hearing aids … and even in kids’ trendy flashing sneakers. The proper way to dispose of them, Shannon explains, is to remove them from the device, place each in a sealed freezer bag or similar container, and bring them to the Resource Recovery Center for disposal. Don’t toss them into the garbage bin!
Another relatively new rule is that household discards should be sorted by type and boxed in cardboard – not the kinds of plastic bags that were used for grass clippings and yard waste, which are now entirely off the table year-round.
Some no-nos are familiar by now to Moorhead households. Demolition materials – say, from remodeling a bathroom – need to be hauled separately to the demolition landfill; they will not be picked up from the curb. Households can dispose of only two appliances a year; doors must be removed from refrigerators and freezers for safety. Empty propane tanks can be collected, but valves must be removed or a hole drilled into the tank.
Tires continue to be forbidden. Moorhead sanitation manager Todd Bratlien says that perennial rule continues to occasionally be violated. Earlier this month, he said, sanitation workers spotted what they’re calling “Tiregate.” Piles of five or six discarded tires started showing up all over town, often beside apartment house dumpsters. All were dusted with the same gray coat, so clearly they came from a single source. A commercial dumpster service had to collect the lot and take them to a disposal center. The culprit is still at large.
Two other special categories of waste are accepted by the county center, but owners looking to get rid of them need to transport them to the Resource Recovery Center themselves. One is electronic gear, including televisions, computers, monitors, laptops, peripherals, fluorescent bulbs and – new this year – LED light bulbs … and take those pesky rechargeable batteries along when you make that trip.
The other category is household chemicals, including paint, stain, varnish and automotive chemicals. These, along with electronics, should be taken to the Resource Recovery Center between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as the first and third Saturday mornings of each month.
Shannon explains that manufacturers of difficult-to-dispose-of materials are beginning to get involved again when the products they’ve sold are at the end of their useful life. The policy called Extended Producer Responsibility extends a producer’s responsibility for a product beyond its manufacturing stage to the post-consumer phase. It shifts responsibility upstream toward the producer, reducing the burden on municipalities.
The EPR concept is only beginning to be implemented, she adds. One of the first programs is Paintcare, a way to get rid of unwanted products. Minnesota has participated in Paintcare, an industry disposal program, for the past 10 years. To find local drop-off centers in addition to the Resource Recovery Center, enter your zip code at www.paintcare.org.
Shannon notes that, while residents pay nothing for curbside pickup on their designated Clean-Up Day, the service is not free – nor has it been when the city’s Waste Transfer Station on Highway 10 was decommissioned at the end of 2022.
“Moorhead pays the county to dispose of its garbage,” she says. While city residents can bring additional waste materials to the center at no charge from April 29 to May 18, that’s not the case for the rest of the year. “The city pays the disposal fees for residents throughout this period,” she says. “During the rest of the year, they do pay the disposal fee themselves when they haul their stuff up here.” Fees depend on the amount of garbage being dropped off, including a $25 tipping fee and a variable amount beginning at $15 for the products.
Moorhead’s sanitation and street crews are predicted to gather well over 600 tons of unwanted junk this year. All that’s thrown away isn’t really “away” – it all requires some kind of final solution, most of it heading to the county landfill southwest of Hawley.
“Recycling is a good solution, but it doesn’t begin to eliminate the problem,” Shannon observes. “In the long run, reusing what’s still useful and reducing the amount we buy are more important.”
She recommends usable goods that are no longer wanted be given to charitable thrift stores – not only the big, well-known operations like Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, the ARC and Heirlooms, but lesser-known groups like the Furniture Mission, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Second Time Around, Gladys Ray Shelter, and Jazzy and Mumbo’s. Some that’s taken to the Resource Recovery Center may even end up in the Reuse Room, where staffers send clearly useful belongings that residents have brought in to be trashed.
An even better solution: Just buy less. Take better care of it. Use it longer.
“Everybody talks about recycling, but it’s better in the long run to reuse and reduce consumption,” she points out. “Recycling alone, no matter how well-intended, can’t possibly do enough to get us out of our huge ‘stuff’ problem.”