 This May, participate in Hennepin County’s Salvage Crawl and get to know home improvement thrift stores in the Twin Cities. These retailers offer a wide variety of building materials, hardware, tools, and other home improvement items. From old growth lumber to vintage light fixtures and everything in between, you’ll be sure to find both inspiration and quality materials for your next project.
How to participate
Visit participating salvage retailers from May 1 to 31 and check in using the QR code on the Hennepin County Salvage Crawl poster near the checkout counter to be entered into a drawing to win one of five prizes. Find a list of retailers, interactive map, and description of prizes at hennepin.us/salvage.
 Hennepin County has funding available for projects that reuse and recycle building materials in the removal, alteration, or renovation of a building.
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Grants for homeowners: During your next home project, consider deconstruction instead of demolition. You'll help keep salvageable materials out of landfills, and you may receive a grant of up to $5,000.
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Grants for property developers: Think green when it's time to redo your buildings. Grants of up to $10,000 are available for property owners and developers who choose deconstruction versus demolition.
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Used building material grants: Want to add true character or retro flair to your home remodel? Choose a salvaged treasure instead of buying new and you may be eligible for a grant of up to $5,000.
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Structural move grants: By physically relocating a building, you can avoid demolition and preserve the structure’s cultural and historical integrity.
The Salvage Crawl and the Building Reuse Grants are a part of the county’s efforts to increase the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste, one of the highest impact zero-waste actions.
May is Arbor Month, and this year we are celebrating the many benefits that trees provide to our communities.
Trees and forests improve our air and water, making us and our communities healthier. They reduce the urban heat island effect and conserve energy by providing shade. Trees provide climate benefits by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing carbon in their wood. They also increase property values, make our streets safer, and provide wildlife habitat.
 The recent influx of $10 million from an Inflation Reduction Act and USDA Forest Service grant further expands our capacity to improve the tree canopy by increasing our forestry unit staffing by 60% and nearly doubling the budget for the next five years. The county is using these resources to plant trees in areas with lower tree canopy cover to mitigate the heat island effect and improve air quality. This work will increase tree cover by planting two trees for every tree removed.
As of the beginning of 2024, Hennepin County is already one-third of the way to our climate-action goal of planting 1 million trees by 2030 with the help of cities, partners, and residents. We need everyone’s help to achieve our goal! See our Arbor Day resources for information about planting trees and caring for mature trees.
Below are updates on some Hennepin County forestry initiatives that are helping to protect the county’s tree canopy and maximize the benefits of trees. Subscribe to the Canopy newsletter to receive more updates on forestry programs and offerings.
Successful spring tree sale
 This spring, Hennepin County sold more than 9,400 trees to restore and improve woodland areas and increase wildlife habitat. This included 8,350 seedling trees sold to property owners and 1,063 bareroot trees sold to cities. Another seedling tree sale will be held in spring 2025.
Spring tree plantings
 Hennepin County foresters will be planting 1,000 trees from the county’s gravel bed nursery and 20,000 tree seedlings along roadways, at county facilities, on conservation easements, and at parks this year. This includes a partnership with MnDOT to plant 160 trees across seven sites along the Interstate 94 corridor and a partnership with the City of Minnetonka to plant over 8,100 seedlings at Ford Park.
Trees and forests learning series
Hennepin County forestry is offering free monthly learning opportunities about trees and forests for residents. These sessions require no previous knowledge, are open to the public, and rotate between virtual webinars, in-person trainings, and hybrid webinars and trainings. Recordings from webinars will be available for those who are unable to attend.
The following sessions are planned this spring and summer:
- Tree planting and selection webinar, Thursday, May 23 from 6 to 7 p.m.
- Tree identification in-person workshop, Thursday, June 20 from 6 to 8 pm.
- Diagnosing common tree defects and health issues in-person workshop, Thursday, July 25 from 6 to 8 p.m.
- Get to know your soil hybrid workshop, Thursday, August 22 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Find details and register to attend a session.
 On Earth Day, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez, and Hennepin County waste reduction and recycling specialists took a zero-waste tour that included visits to Better Futures and Tortilleria La Perla in south Minneapolis to learn how these organizations leveraged resources provided by the county to reduce waste and discuss additional policies needed to achieve a zero-waste future.
La Perla received a waste prevention grant from Hennepin County to reduce waste in their tortilla making process, and Better Futures contracts with Hennepin County to deconstruct buildings to salvage, reuse, and recycle building materials.
This summer, Hennepin and Ramsey counties will partner with volunteer community scientists to gather data to better understand urban heat islands. These are urban areas where the temperature can be significantly higher than in nearby rural areas or large green spaces due to more concrete and other impermeable surfaces that radiate heat along with less tree canopy and greenspace to mitigate the heat.
Hennepin and Ramsey counties are one of 14 U.S. communities and four international cities doing this work as part of NOAA’s 2024 Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign.
Using heat sensors mounted on their cars, volunteer community scientists will traverse their neighborhoods in the morning, afternoon, and evening on one of the hottest days of the year. The sensors record temperature, humidity, time, and location. This data, paired with community engagement, analysis, and modeling, allows communities to develop hyper-local descriptions of where the hottest parts of their neighborhoods are and inform strategies to reduce the health impacts of extreme heat and provide cooling relief for those living in the hottest areas.
More information about how to get involved will be announced soon. For more information, contact urbanheat@hennepin.us.
Highlighting the collective impact stewards have had on engaging community and improving water quality
Clean water starts here! Hennepin County recently published a report showing the work and collective impact of Minnesota Water Stewards trained by county staff from 2018 to 2023.
See the report Minnesota Water Stewards: Hennepin County cohorts 2018 - 2023 (PDF).
Minnesota Water Stewards is program coordinated in partnership with Freshwater that trains residents to be water advocates in their communities.
Impacts stewards have had in the community and on water quality since 2018 include:
- 28 certified stewards, including 23 traditional stewards and five Art for Water stewards
- 1,812 people engaged through in-person outreach
- 3.15 million gallons of rain water intercepted
- 1,924 pounds of sediment reduction
In addition to the collective results, the report includes features on each steward’s capstone project.
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Tips for reducing wasted food and saving money
Hennepin County’s food waste prevention specialist, Jenny Kedward, was on several local media outlets during Food Waste Prevention Week (April 1 – 7) to launch the county’s Trash or Cash campaign and share ways to reduce wasted food and save money.
Jenny was on the WCCO morning show, Fox9 Good Day (starting at 32 minutes), and CCX media sharing tips for buying the amount you need, understanding date labels, creating an Eat First area in your fridge, storing food to make it last, using leftover ingredients in new ways, and freezing ingredients in small portions.
Jenny also talked to the Laura Yuen with the Star Tribune for an Earth Day article on reorganizing your fridge to save food.
How well are we recycling? Minneapolis waste sort study offers insights
 The Star Tribune dug into data from a 2022 Minneapolis waste sort study to uncover how well we are doing with recycling and how we could improve.
Residents do a relatively good job overall, but there are still a lot of opportunities for improvement. This includes recycling more aluminum and steel cans. Only about half of aluminum cans are recycled, and the cans throw in the trash have a value of about $590,000 in the recycling market. We also could be recycling a lot more paper, especially paper packaging from deliveries, office and school papers, mail, and magazines and catalogs.
The most common things put in the recycling that shouldn’t be are plastic items, including plastic cutlery, plastic film, and bubble wrap. These items can cause problems with the recycling sorting process, so looks for ways to avoid them and dispose of them in the trash.
Get more tips and insights in the Star Tribune, and learn more about what happens to your recycling at RecyclingExists.com.
2024 household hazardous waste collection events
 Hennepin County is holding four community collection events in 2024 to give residents more convenient, local disposal options for unwanted garden and household hazardous wastes.
Events will take place Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the following dates:
- May 3 and 4 at Minnetonka Public Works
- June 21 and 22 at Sullivan STEAM School in Minneapolis
- August 9 and 10 at Jenny Lind Elementary School in Minneapolis
- September 20 and 21 at the Hennepin County Public Works Orono Shop
Before you go, check safety guidelines and the list of acceptable materials.
Backyard composting workshops
Learn how to recycle your food scraps and yard waste into compost – right in your own backyard – at an upcoming free online webinar or in-person workshop.
- Tuesday, April 30 from 7 to 8 p.m. Virtual on Zoom. Register.
- Monday, May 6 from noon to 1 p.m. Virtual on Zoom. Register.
- Saturday, May 18 from 10 to 11 a.m. In person at the Hopkins Library. Register.
Spring and summer garage sales and swaps
 There are many opportunities this spring and summer to get new-to-you goods, pass along items you no longer need to someone who can use them, and promote a culture of reuse in your community. See our Choose to Reuse list of citywide and neighborhood garage sales and upcoming community swap events. Get more tips for encouraging reuse in your community.
Wasting food is a waste of money. While no one likes wasting food, we often don’t realize how much uneaten leftovers or spoiled fruit adds up.
That’s why simply tracking what food goes to waste and why can have the greatest impact on your kitchen habits.
 Try one of these tracking methods:
- Use our new Fridge Check Guide (PDF) to understand what food you’re throwing away and why. The guide also has a Use It Up list to help you make a plan for ingredients and leftovers that need to get eaten quickly.
- Keep a bowl or container on your counter or in the fridge to collect food that could have been eaten but wasn't. This will help you see how your habits add up.
- Jot down the type of food you waste every time you toss food. Look at the list after a few weeks to see if you find any patterns.
Want more helpful tips to help you waste less food and put more money in your pocket? Sign up for Fridge Check Friday emails! You’ll get weekly reminders to use up your food before it goes bad plus snack-sized kitchen hacks to help you get the most out of your groceries.
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