If you've lived, worked or visited Dodge County or Olmsted County during the past 30 years, your garbage has gone to the Olmsted Waste-to-Energy Facility.
The 1980s were a turning point in how we deal with the waste we produce every day. Before 1987, everything pretty much went to a landfill. If you wanted to recycle, the materials had to be sorted at home into containers (for newspapers, cardboard, aluminum, and glass, by color), and delivered to a recycling center. We had no hazardous waste reuse or disposal programs, and no compost sites.