Good Question: 'Reply All': Recycling & Minn. Advertising
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you live in Minneapolis, you can recycle your yogurt cup. But you can't in St. Paul.
Why not?
And why do we spend so much advertising Minnesota...to Minnesotans? We're hitting Reply All to your Good Questions.
Let's start with Lizzie in St. Paul who wanted to know: Why does Minneapolis recycle more things than St. Paul?
It's true. Minneapolis will take yogurt cups, deli trays and glass jars. St. Paul takes none of that.
St. Paul uses Eureka Recycling; Minneapolis picks it up itself and has Allied Recycling process it. We visited their plant.
It's all about who the processors can get to buy the stuff. Eureka says it could easily collect more things-- but getting companies to buy them and actually recycle them into new products -- that's more of a challenge.
I can't get enough of Joe Mauer's singing and Larry Robertson from Bloomington can't either. He wonders: How much does Explore Minnesota spend advertising in Minnesota?
The total budget is about $13 million, and they spend about $6.5 million on marketing and advertising.
However, the majority of that money is spent out-of-state; 65 percent goes to neighboring states.
But 35 percent is spent in Minnesota, which amounts to about $2.3 million.
Instead of vacationing in South Dakota, the tourism people would rather we go to Red Wing or Duluth.
Love this Good Question from Shelby in Minneapolis: What happens to mail that doesn't get to its destination?
I checked with the U.S. Postal Service, and first-class mail that can't be delivered - and there's no return address - goes to the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta.
They actually scan the letters to figure out if there's cash, checks or credit cards inside. If so, they open the mail to look for an address.
For example, say you mailed in a cell phone payment, and block the envelope window with your check.
It goes to Atlanta, they open it, photocopy the check and mail that copy back to you with an explanation. Then they shred the check.
If it's a package of less than $25, they destroy it. More than that, they hold it in Atlanta for 3 months to a year. Then they auction it off.
