 Recycling is known to reduce air and water pollution and help the environment. And now Beltrami County is making it easier for folks to turn their trash into something new and useful for the future. Lakeland News reporter Malak Khattab has more on the new initiative that Beltrami County put in place. Recycling is not supposed to be a difficult task. But for the longest time, residents in Beltrami County had to separate their own recyclables before dropping them off at the transfer station. It was not allowed for fiber products to be used with containers. Before they could handle the single-sort recycling and the machines over there, which is an automated process, could only handle fiber and containers separately. Now the new state-of-the-art facility can actually handle both. And it's more efficient for the facility to actually have your recycling now mixed. For the single-sort recycling initiative to take effect, all the facilities have to be renovated. Olson says that all of the waste recyclables go to a material recovery facility in Boston. That's an automated plant which has some people behind the scenes for quality control. But that's where all of the recycling then gets separated to where then it can get sold. If you have recyclables at home, all you have to do is drive to the transfer station, get out of your car, get all your recyclable items, and throw it away. So we've been working with the GIS department in Beltrami County and they've actually put together an application. This app will allow people to click on the solid waste site they want to go to and see what they can and cannot bring to that specific facility. Reporting in Bemidji, Malakatab, Lakeland News. The Beltrami County Waste Management will soon be taking an organic recycling. The waste manager says that project will begin sometime in April. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.