Report to detail growth in garbage across Minnesota

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Even though Minnesotans are prone to recycle, they are setting records when it comes to trash.

In a state where 40 percent of trash is recycled, citizens and businesses are sending more than 3 million tons of rubbish a year to incinerators or landfills, the state's Office of Environmental Assistance will report to legislators.

That's enough trash to fill a fleet of garbage trucks running bumper-to-bumper on a 14-lane highway between Duluth and Minneapolis.

''While population is a factor, the other factor is economic,'' said Sherry Enzler, director of the OEA. ''People are buying more and what they're buying had an increased volume of packaging.''

Legislators originally hoped that recycling would reduce Minnesota's garbage production by 10 percent between 1995 and 1999. But garbage production soared over those years.