Much of the plastic dumped in recycling containers in Otter Tail County, Minn., is shipped away to be turned into plastic lumber.
But in a small room tucked in the corner of the recycling facility, Carl Zachmann is making something entirely different. He holds a small mold for making tin soldiers while a machine pumps it full of pink gooey plastic.
“I am practicing to make a Napoleon in pink. It’s a good color on him,” said Zachmann, prying apart the mold to show off the pink general.
The Lakes Area Mix Workspace is a small-scale version of a large plastic reuse operation. The open source machines were purchased from a company in the Netherlands called Precious Plastics.
The $13,000 cost was funded by Otter Tail, Pope and Douglas counties, the West Central…
