Coon Rapids expands recycling center, including more space for hard-to-recycle Styrofoam

Bonnie Porter had one word to describe the Coon Rapids Recycling Center.

"Awesome," she said last week, as she dropped off a carload of oversized pieces of cardboard.

To that, city recycling coordinator and center manager Colleen Sinclair would add another thought: It needs to be bigger.

In the coming months, Coon Rapids will complete a recycling center expansion project that has been on the north metro city's wish list for years. The facility, open to Anoka County residents, already takes in more than 1.5 million pounds of small appliances, mattresses, batteries, paper, light bulbs and other recyclables each year — but with heavy usage, space is running out.

"We need a place to put it all," said Sinclair, who has overseen the center at 1827 111th Av. NW. for the past 18 years.

The $860,000 redo, paid for with money included in the 2020 state bonding bill, Anoka County grants and city dollars, includes a new building on the east end of the property. The 130-foot-long building will include space to store cardboard, which currently sits on pallets outside and doesn't fetch as much money from buyers when it's dirty and wet, Sinclair said on a recent rainy Tuesday.

The new building will also ease overcrowding. A noisy Styrofoam compactor in the center's tiny main building consumes most of a room that doubles as Sinclair's office and does not give nine part-time employees room to hang their coats, she said.

Coon Rapids is one of a few places in the state that accepts Styrofoam, and the machine that compresses the packaging material into bricks will be relocated to the new building. That will provide the necessary space to process what has become one of the most dropped-off items, Sinclair said.

The city added Styrofoam recycling in 2014 due to customer requests, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Anderson.

"We decided to take the leap and figure out how to navigate the challenges," she said. "It has been extremely successful."

A redesigned lot will provide better traffic flow and parking, another need as an average of 400 vehicles drive through the yard each day.

"It's like that most days," Sinclair said as customers lined up outside the front gate just before its 9 a.m. opening. "And it's like that all day long."

With a mission to keep many "hard-to-manage materials" out of the landfill and give them a second life, Sinclair said the center this spring also will open a Reuse Room where visitors can take discarded items such as paint, moving boxes and even egg cartons — a need for local farmers — for free.

Customers pay nothing to drop off items such as fluorescent light bulbs, glass bottles, newspaper, plastic bags and used motor oil. Fees charged to drop off TVs, electronics and appliances help cover operating and disposal expenses.

"We are self-supporting," Sinclair said. "We charge enough, but not too much so customers can't afford it. We are in it for the environment. We don't want to tell people no."

Employee Pat Callan of Coon Rapids said the coming facility changes are exciting and give people more ways to help protect the environment.

For Porter, of Ramsey, it's simply a matter of convenience.

"It's hard to find places to take it," she said while unloading cardboard and a few pieces of Styrofoam. "Where else could I go?"