FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (KFGO/KVRR) — Otter Tail County officials say every summer people are tossing fish guts into their recycling bins, but this year, the county is saying ‘no more.’
“We could see several bags of contaminated fish guts. Sometimes, they come in loosely which is not cool. Yeah, we can see quite a bit especially during the big holiday weekends like this. We just get it down to our garbage as soon as we can. Then, we have our operators come down. They have to dispose of it because the smell is terrible,” Kristi Thunselle said.
On Wednesday, Otter Tail County shared a social media post stating they’re staff “cannot stomach any more fish guts in the recycling” and that raising awareness can help save someone’s job or a life.
“Our staff takes really good pride in making sure that they’re recycling is clean because the product in the end needs to be recycled and we sell it to people that take that product and then turn it into more aluminum cans, more plastic decking and other paper products. For us, it’s a pride issue. We want to make sure the end product is as clean as possible,” Otter Tail County Recycling Manager Brooks Andersen said.
Andersen believes people might not understand the harm of putting fish guts in their recycling, or simply do not know where to throw fish guts.
“Well, I think most people think that if they put their fish guts in the recycling then it will be taken care of. What it does is it contaminates our recycling and we have a difficult time, at that point in time and taking care of that we end up basically just throwing it away,” Andersen said.
Andersen said other misunderstood items thrown with recycling include Styrofoam, plastic chairs and children’s toys.
The County said the proper way to dispose of fish guts is by burying it or double bagging it with other household garbage.
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