Media contact: Carolyn Marinan, Communications, 612-348-5969
Media contact: Ben Knudson, Environment and Energy, 612-596-1176
Draft Solid Waste Management Master Plan available for
public comment
Hennepin County encourages people to complete a survey and give their feedback on proposed strategies in its
draft Solid
Waste Management Master Plan. This survey is
intended for various stakeholders, including residents and representatives from
businesses, cities, haulers and community groups.
The survey, plan and supporting materials are available at www.hennepin.us/solidwasteplanning through
October 9. It is anticipated that the county board will consider
the plan for approval in November.
Focusing on organics
recycling
A primary focus of the plan is diverting organics from the
trash. Organics, which include food, food-soiled paper and compostable
products, is the biggest opportunity to reduce waste. Waste sort studies
continue to show that organics make up the largest proportion of trash:
25 percent.
The county is proposing four key strategies to increase organics
diversion:
-
Require cities to provide
residents the opportunity to recycle organics by 2022,
with a possible exemption for cities with 10,000 residents or fewer.
- Require businesses that
generate large quantities of food waste to implement organics recycling by
2020.
-
Support the expansion of
organics recycling in a cost-effective way by increasing local capacity to
process organics. Tactics include expanding the county's transfer station in Brooklyn
Park to accept more organics; working with private transfer
stations to accept organics; and developing additional
processing capacity through methods, such as anaerobic digestion,
that can produce renewable energy, compost, and fertilizer from organic
materials.
- Expand efforts to prevent
wasted food by providing assistance to businesses and schools and
educating residents.
Developing the
strategies
Earlier this year, the county gathered input on the plan from
1,500 participants through public engagement.
Overall, the county found that people are willing to do their
part to expand organics recycling if it is part of a broader effort to make
organics available more widely. Many residents consider
organics recycling to be important, with 62 percent of residents
indicating they would be very likely to participate in organics recycling
programs.
Representatives from businesses and business associations found that the
approach to the requirements made sense. The requirements were also palatable
to representatives from cities and businesses if they were implemented with
county guidance and support.
About the master plan
State statute requires metropolitan counties to prepare master
plans every six years that identify strategies to meet the state’s goal of 75
percent of waste recycled and zero waste landfilled by 2030. The county has
made steady progress towards this goal and diverted 82 percent of waste from
landfills in 2016, a rate on par with national leaders.
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Look for more news on the Hennepin County website at www.hennepin.us/news.
Discover how we're making a difference in our communities at www.hennepin.us/stories.
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