RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – A website focused on home security and community safety, Safe Home, recently released rankings of each U.S. state and the District of Columbia based on safety for LGBT+ community members. The list and accompanying article have spread around social media this week, and particularly in South Dakota. The Mount Rushmore State ranks dead last according to Safe Home’s criteria.
Rapid City Native American Two-Spirit Activist Monique “Muffie” Mousseau agrees.
“The Governor’s office, until they educate themselves with all of these beautiful, wonderful colors and why they exist,” Mousseau said while holding up a pride flag-themed notebook. “I really don’t feel like this state is going to move up the ranks.”
Mousseau’s organization, Uniting Resilience, advocates for members of the Native American LGBT+ community and environmental issues. Since marrying her wife 18 years ago, she said she has seen positive and negative moments for people like her in South Dakota, but there has not been a significant increase or decrease in quality of life.
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Safe Home’s criteria for ranking states in terms of safety for LGBT+ individuals include state laws and recent hate crime statistics. South Dakota reported 16 sexual orientation-related hate crimes and one gender orientation-related hate crime from 2020 through 2022 per the Department of Justice.
Particular laws that Safe Home’s writers cited as reasons for South Dakota’s bottom ranking and “F” grade include including criminalization of exposing others to HIV, preferential adoption policies favoring heterosexual couples, bans on individuals using opposite-sex bathrooms in public schools, and bans on gender transition medical care for children.
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BROOKINGS, S.D. — South Dakota State University announces Katelyn Engel of Hays has been named to the dean’s list for the fall 2024 semester.
Engel is a student in SDSU’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
To earn dean’s list distinctions in SDSU’s colleges, students must have completed a minimum of 12 credits and must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Overall, 3,901 students from 40 states and 32 foreign nations are on the list. More than 1,600 students received a 4.0 GPA.
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About South Dakota State University
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education.
MARSHALL— The National Weather Service has issued an Extreme Cold Warning in effect until noon CST Tuesday for portions of southwest Minnesota and east-central South Dakota.
The affected area includes cities such as Hendricks, Ivanhoe, Madison, Pipestone, Arlington, Lake Preston, Orland, Flandreau, Brookings, De Smet, Marshall, Tyler, Slayton, Lake Benton, and Fulda.
Wind chills may plunge as low as -40°F, creating life-threatening conditions. Frostbite can occur on exposed skin within 10 minutes.
Limit outdoor exposure. If you must go outside, dress in layers, including a hat, face mask, and gloves. Keep pets indoors and check on vulnerable individuals, including older adults and neighbors. Use portable heaters safely and avoid indoor use of generators or grills.
Many farmers are frustrated with all of the plastic that clutters their farmyards.
Tarps from silage piles, plastic containers, net wrap, totes and drums pile up. It is estimated that 12.5 million tons of agricultural plastic are used annually in the U.S.
A company near Lennox transforms the plastic generated on farms and from other sourcesinto something that every farm needs — 4-inch and 6-inch fence posts. It’s a brilliant example of waste reimagined.
Billy Pollema, vice president of sales for ZahnTech, said the company transforms waste plastic into a product needed by the ag market.
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“We sell these posts nationwide, and some have gone to Florida and the Caribbean islands. In those places, they struggle with wood posts rotting due to the salt water and humidity, so this is a good fit for them,” Pollema said.
Bags and other types of plastic are recycled into fence posts by ZahnTech in Lennox. Courtesy photo.
MORE: New agricultural business program will start next fall at Northern State
“Currently, the company processes 30,000 pounds of plastic daily,” he said. “We take it in, shred it, melt it and turn it into something useful. Our goal is to triple what we can process.”
People are thinking more about being sustainable and many want to get to zero waste. The company wants to rebrand recycling and change the way the world views garbage.
ZahnTech is eager to keep plastic out of the landfill.
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“We encourage people to bring plastic to us from all over South Dakota. We are even getting some from Wyoming. Our company is partnering with farmers plus different industries. We take it all in as long as it is plastic. There are seven types of plastic in our formulation,” Pollema said.
Trucks constantly pull up to drop off their loads, he said.
“We take chemical jugs as long as they’ve been properly rinsed. We get thousands of barrels from ag companies during the summer and fall, plus plastic pallets,” Pollema said. “We’ve partnered with the city of Beresford to take their curbside pickup materials. Every two or three weeks, it comes to us in bales. They’ll dump it in our shed and we’ll take it from there. We do not accept liquids, glass, metal or hazardous chemicals.”
In addition to ag plastic, ZahnTech is getting semi loads of plastic waste from many industry partners, including Glanbia Nutritionals, which has locations all over the country. Recently, 10 semi-loads of Walmart bags were dropped off. That’s 500,000 pounds of bags waiting to be shredded.
The process uses a primary shredder and a secondary shredder, reducing the plastic to three-eighths inch. Then the material goes through the hot melt extruder and flows into molds for the 4-inch and 6-inch posts.
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MORE: Latest 2024 farm income forecast shows overall decrease from 2023
There’s strong demand for the posts.
“We price them to be competitive with the wood market as farmers don’t want to pay more than they have to. ZahnTech is one of the few companies using this process. In addition to the company in New Zealand, there is one in Canada and one in Pennsylvania,” Pollema said.
He was at the recent Dakota Farm Show in Vermillion showing people the pros of using the posts and explaining what the company does. The plastic posts can replace the green-treated posts or posts treated with creosote to prevent rot. Wood posts normally need to be replaced every 10 years or sooner. ZahnTech information said testing shows their posts will last 100 years.
Business sparked by frustration from lack of plastic scrap recycling options
A fence post made from recycled plastic by ZahnTech in Lennox. Courtesy photo.
The owner, Avery Zahn, started the process, and Pollema shared Zahn’s story.
Zahn has owned a pipeline business. His frustration stemmed from the lack of plastic scrap recycling options, forcing him to take the materials to the landfill. After he sold his business, Zahn noticed the railroad ties around his horse arena were rotting and needed to be replaced. Remembering the unrecyclable plastic, he searched for a way to make something usable from it, such as fence posts. He found that in New Zealand, a company developed a process to do that.
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“He bought his first extrusion machine from New York, brought it to South Dakota and started figuring out a way to melt the plastic and turn it into fence posts,” Pollema said “Avery tried different formulations and produced a composite to get the posts to the needed strength. After a year and a half of research and development, the company started making and selling products. That was a year and a half ago. It all started with Avery looking at the posts and deciding, ‘I’m going to come up with a better way.’”
The biggest cost for ZahnTech is electricity, with 3,000 amps of service coming into the production facility.
“It’s our major cost and it would be great if we could reduce that, maybe by using some solar power,” Pollema said.
MORE: Invenergy plans 250 megawatt wind farm in Frederick area
While the electricity is expensive, the plastic is free.
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“People are looking for places to get rid of their plastic,” he said. “We are diverting as much from the landfill as possible. It’s a great selling point for our posts as people can see we are doing something good for the environment. For years, people buried plastic, and it will take years to degrade. Many people get behind what we are doing.”
ZahnTech produces 300 plastic fence posts per day
The company produces 300 posts a day with six people in the production line who do the shredding, bundling, receiving material and fabrication. In all, there are 11 employees.
Avery Zahn founded and owns ZahnTech, a Lennox business that recycles plastic of all sorts into fence posts. Courtesy photo.
The goal is to handle 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of plastic a day with the two main lines. When ZahnTech adds another line, it will be able to handle 60,000 to 70,000 pounds a day.
Currently, ZahnTech is transforming 98% of waste into sustainable products,” Zahn said.
“We’re not far from achieving our goal — 100% waste conversion. The company wants to build a greener, cleaner world, one fence post at a time,” he said.
On its website, ZahnTech claims its posts are 10 times stronger and 20 times more durable than wood. They are flexible and can be post-driven, cut, drilled, nailed, screwed, bolted or stapled. The posts are fire-resistant, non-conductive, won’t split or rot and are impenetrable by water, frost and pests, per the website. They can also be pulled up and repositioned.
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Connie Sieh Groop of Frederick is a veteran journalist and writer who has focused on all aspects of the agriculture industry during her career.
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