Hennepin County wants cities to start curbside organics recycling, and it鈥檚 planning to pay more to those that do next year. It鈥檚 part of a shift in recycling across the country to focus more on organics, or food waste. Hennepin County鈥檚 own move toward organics is part of a gradual increase in funding that the county envisions, aiming for half of recycling dollars to go toward it by 2020.
鈥淚t sets the tone,鈥� said Ben Knudson, a Hennepin County recycling specialist. 鈥淚t will get the attention of cities.鈥� The state allocates recycling money to counties for distribution to cities, which can use the money to provide discounts to residents, buy compostable bags or other items or to help pay for city contracts. This year, $3.2 million of the county鈥檚 $3.5 million in recycling funds went toward cities鈥� recycling programs, while $300,000 went toward organics recycling.
If the County Board gives final approval to the funding policy change on Tuesday, next year鈥檚 amount dedicated to organics programs will leap to $720,000 鈥� a fifth of the $3.7 million the county will allocate to cities.
The county plans to gradually increase that amount each year until 2020, when up to 50 percent of the total funding will go to organics. 鈥淸It鈥檚] the new era in household waste management,鈥� Commissioner Mike Opat said at the Nov. 22 County Board committee meeting. 鈥淲e went to 鈥榯hrow it all in the garbage can鈥� to various styles of recycling. And now we鈥檙e going to move into organics. It鈥檚 a big step.鈥�
A report released Nov. 15 by Hennepin County showed that food waste is the top item residents are throwing away that could be recycled. In that report,聽the results of sorting trash from three Minneapolis neighborhoods last summer, 25 鈥塸ercent of trash is food waste that could have gone to organics recycling. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of organics in the trash, yet not a lot of people have the opportunity to participate in organics,鈥� Knudson said.
In 2015, cities across the county collected 98,000 tons of recyclable materials and 1,400 tons of organics from 352,000 households. This year, Minneapolis has聽ramped up awareness to boost the number of people participating in its curbside organics recycling, which kicked off in a limited way in 2015 and expanded citywide this year. So far, more than 42,500 Minneapolis households have signed up for the program.
Just 12 of 44 cities in Hennepin County have organics programs. Other cities have been slow to start curbside organics recycling programs because of the costs or uncertainty about the best collection methods, Knudson said. He said the county鈥檚 funding distribution program can get cities to take a closer look at organics recycling, though there鈥檚 no mandate to require they start programs.
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