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The Community Recycling Ambassador (formerly named Master Recycler/Composter) program began in 2011 with a class of 27 original students and has grown today to include 859 Community Recycling Ambassadors who have volunteered more than 12,000 hours over the years!
Kaitlin Keller, who led the program since 2019, has recently been promoted into a supervisory role and is passing on the torch of coordinating the CRA program. The new CRA program coordinator is Kirsten Wahlberg. Kirsten has been with Hennepin County since August 2024 and has been working in the waste and recycling field for 10 years. Please welcome Kirsten into this role and thank Kaitlin for her years of service and dedication to the Community Recycling Ambassadors program! Special thanks as well to Amy Maas who was the interim program contact.
Contact Kirsten with any questions, concerns, volunteer opportunities, volunteer hours submissions, and all things CRA at kirsten.wahlberg@hennepin.us or 612-543-0430.
Help spread the word! If you know someone who would make a great ambassador, encourage them to check out the program and sign up to be notified when the next application is open: hennepin.us/recycling-ambassadors
Spring 2025 class
Thursday from February 20 through March 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. The class will take place virtually via Zoom.
The application for the spring class will open on Thursday, January 23 and close on Thursday, February 6.
Fall 2025 class
The fall 2025 class is not yet scheduled.
Sign up to be notified about upcoming Community Recycling Ambassador courses.
We know many of you are doing great things in your communities to improve recycling and reduce waste in Hennepin County. Reporting your hours help us track your progress toward completing your 30 volunteer hours and becoming a certified Community Recycling Ambassador. It also helps us track the impact of the program.
Thank you to the following CRAs who have completed their hours or gone above-and-beyond these past few months:
30+ hours
- Delia Zhang
- Kendra Grand
- Mary Lesmeister
- Nancy Hovanes
- Sarah Toov
- Sydney Summers
See the volunteer hours update (PDF) to check your current hours and remember to report your hours by filling out the Community Recycling Ambassador volunteer hours reporting form.
The online Plastic-Free Challenge is coming up! The Plastic-Free Challenge is a month-long online challenge to educate and empower reduction of plastic use in Hennepin, Washington and Ramsey counties. The challenge runs from February 1 through 28 with registration open now. We have three volunteer opportunities for CRAs to promote the challenge and engage people they know in taking the challenge. A brief description of each opportunity is below. If you have questions or are interested in tabling, please contact amy.maas@hennepin.us.
 Promote the challenge
Help is needed to recruit participants for the Plastic-Free Challenge. Promote the challenge within your network during the month of January while registration is open. Promotions can be done in person or online. For partner resources, see the partner page, and for our media kit to share about the challenge, see the resources page. This year, all resources are also available in Spanish!
Serve as a team captain
Create a team then recruit and engage your team members! This can be done in person or online January through February. You’ll sign up for the challenge online, create a profile and start or join a team. Recruit family, friends, and colleagues to join you and keep each other accountable! When the challenge is live, share thoughts, post updates, ask questions, challenge team members to take on actions, and help troubleshoot and keep them motivated. Tips for getting started and serving as a team captain are on the resources page, along with some video tutorials.
Volunteer at the Toy Swap
Sunday, February 2 from 8 to 11:30 a.m.
MN Toy Library (South branch inside Richfield Lutheran Church, 8 West 60th Street, Minneapolis)
Minneapolis Solid Waste and Recycling and the MN Toy Library are partnering to host a toy swap in February to coincide with the Plastic-Free Challenge! Five volunteers needed to help prep, greet, facilitate and pack up after the swap. Contact Margo Ashmore (margo.ashmore@minneapolismn.org) for full details and to sign up.
Help answer questions on the new Discord server
Do you use Discord? Know folks who do? Help us spread the word about the new Recycling in Hennepin County Discord server! The goal is to help garner interest and expertise in the more "chronically online" Hennepin County residents, generally themed on asking recycling questions. We've had a great response to the roll out so far and want to get more visibility. Share or join the server on Discord or email Elise at elise.k.wall@gmail.com (she's happy to help first timers or anyone having issues). If you're interested in accessing the CRA-only channels, email Elise about that too!
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We are offering more opportunities for people interested in waste reduction and sustainability to get familiar with the local community. Community-builder events are aligned with the current round of the Zero Waste Challenge program and will be available to current or past Zero Waste Challenge households as well as Community Recycling Ambassadors! The next opportunity is upcoming on January 27:
Low-waste legislation webinar
Monday, January 27 from 6 to 7 p.m.
Hear from Mallory Anderson, Policy Specialist with Hennepin County Environment and Energy, on low-waste legislation. This session will cover what is happening to reduce waste at a county and state level. Use this Microsoft Teams link to join.
These community-builder events are not intended to provide volunteer hours, but occasional opportunities may arise to help support future events, so stay tuned.
This section will feature commonly asked questions, things that have come up in discussion on the Facebook group, or other notable items to share.
Facebook question: Can dissolvable packing peanuts go in curbside compost?
Answer: Unfortunately, no. Unless you can confirm the packing peanuts are BPI certified, there is no way to know if they contain any additives. Many items are labeled "biodegradable" by companies in an effort to appear sustainable. The reality is that often these terms are used purely for marketing and are considered "green-washing." All packing peanuts without BPI certification should be reused or placed in the trash.
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