When you gather 120,000 people or so and hundreds of animals in a few hundred acres each day, there will be leftovers — trash, food waste, dung both human and animal, card- board and grease, to name a few. Some of the waste gets reused in some way; at the 2019 fair, about 50 tons of glass, plastic and aluminum were collected and recycled, and thousands of tons of animal manure is composted into fertilizer. At the Corn Roast, diners can finish off a cob and then toss it into a giant bin, which is hauled to a commercial composting facility. Cleaning up is a 24/7 affair, from sweeping the streets to sucking the waste out of the portable toilets. We can't all be the dairy princess, but there's a role for everyone in beautifying the fair.
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
Shari L. Gross, Star Tribune
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