(ABC 6 News) – A $2.1 million state grant is allowing Dodge County to construct a new facility at its Kasson-based transfer station, which broke ground Wednesday morning.

Every day, the transfer station takes in an average of 20 to 30 tons of garbage, a number that’s been steadily increasing in recent years.

“Our county has been experiencing a lot of growth in the last year, and obviously with more growth you’re going to get more waste,” said Lauren Cornelius, the director for Dodge County Environmental Services.

The average American produces about 4.9 pounds of trash a day, according to the EPA.

Combine that Dodge County’s 20,000+ residents and that’s a lot of garbage.

Sometimes too much.

“There’s times this recycling bay here will get so full we gotta shut this door and we can’t keep up hauling it at certain times,” said facility manager Ken Paulson.

That’s why this new facility is so crucial, increasing the capacity of the transfer station by 3.5 times.

The construction was made possible by funding from the state, secured thanks to the combined efforts of local officials and state Sen. Carla Nelson (R – Rochester).

“Truly this is a great project, innovative, economically feasibly, environmentally friendly,” Sen. Nelson said. “This is the project the government should be doing.”

It’s also not the only project the county has been working on to improve its waste management.

The nearby Renovation ReUse building has been under construction for the last several months as the county looks to push people to reconsider how they get rid of things.

“Landfills are one way people get rid of trash but eventually they’re going to reach their capacity too,” said Cornelius. “If we can teach people that you can’t always just throw things away, things do have a second life.”

The new facility will also help the county give even more things a second life.

While the new building will hold all of the trash and recycling that comes in every day, the old building will become the new home for the county’s demolition debris, some of which can be repurposed and sold at the Renovation ReUse building just up the road.

Construction on the new facility is set to take place over the summer with final completion slated for end of August.