Hennepin County is on pace to become the first county in Minnesota to require businesses to recycle organic waste, with curbside organic recycling to follow in most cities with a new ordinance the County Board is likely to pass by the end of 2018. The ordinance would require all businesses that generate large amounts of food waste to participate in food recycling by 2020 and would mandate all cities with populations above 10,000 residents offer curbside organics recycling by 2022.
The move is an attempt to comply with a state law requiring metro area counties to recycle 75 percent of their waste by 2030. It would be the first time Hennepin County has revised its recycling regulations since they were first established in 1986, according to county environmental educator Angie Timmons. The curbside ordinance would apply to single-family homes and multi-family units up to fourplexes, but not apartment complexes, Timmons said.
County officials say about 30 percent of what ends up in landfills is compostable material. And the best way to help the environment, and county coffers, is to divert as much of that waste as possible. “The biggest bang for our buck is getting compost out of the trash,” Timmons said.
The more material that ends up in landfills, the more methane those landfills will emit into our air, she said. Hennepin County does not presently have a commercial organics recycling site. Most of the organic material is brought down to a commercial composting site operated by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Scott County or to Specialized Environmental Technologies’ Empire Processing Facility in Dakota County.
The county is looking into getting an anaerobic digester system, basically a composting stomach, Timmons said. Another potential solution could be oxygen-free composting that produces a gas that can be used as energy.
Getting big businesses on board is critical, Timmons said. Large companies with in-house dining facilities and grocery stores are some of the biggest targets. Some large grocers, like Lunds and Beyerlys, are already participating in organics recycling. Key to achieving state and county goals is waste prevention, which has a significant environmental impact. “We’re striving to get toward zero waste,” Timmons said.
Cities will have a couple options when it comes to curbside organics, Timmons said. They can establish a contract with a local hauler that offers curbside organics recycling, or they can require all haulers servicing the city offer the service. “They have to figure out what makes sense for them and their residents,” Timmons said. Minneapolis has offered a curbside organics recycling program for two years now and has a 46 percent participation rate, Timmons said. St. Louis Park also has a high participation rate.