Just one year ago, Sheri Selton was indiscriminate with waste at her home in Crystal. From soda cans to food scraps, everything went into the trash. She had always wanted to recycle, but she found it confusing, and nobody ever taught her how.<\/p>\n
Now, Selton diverts about 60 percent of her waste, sorting it into a solid recycling bin, a composting pile in her backyard, and two buckets for indoor worm composting that her sons, Prince Jr. and Joseph, tend to in their living room.<\/p>\n
Selton learned her new habits by participating in Hennepin County\u2019s\u00a0Zero Waste Challenge. Starting in September 2016, county staff worked with 35 households throughout the area to help them increase the portion of waste they recycled and composted while decreasing the amount of trash they generated in the first place. In doing so, the county is getting a better handle on the challenges individual residents face and what policies and information would help households produce less waste.<\/p>\n
The program is one of a handful of efforts Hennepin County has been developing to try to reach a 75 percent recycling rate by 2030, the statewide goal set for all counties in Minnesota\u2019s metro area.<\/p>\n
In August, the county wrapped up the first year of the Challenge with participating households diverting 62 percent of their waste, on average. One month before that, Minneapolis finished its first year of\u00a0offering curbside organics recycling citywide, a program that other towns in the county, like Wayzata and St. Louis Park, started to offer a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Still, recycling in Hennepin County is a good way from 75 percent: In 2016, the total diversion rate was 51 percent, made up of 41 percent solid-waste recycling, 7 percent yard waste, and 3 percent organic waste. Statewide, Minnesota\u2019s diversion rate was only 44 percent in 2015.<\/p>\n
Solid recycling (paper, plastic, etc.) has existed for a while in Hennepin County, but rates haven\u2019t moved much from 40 percent over the last decade. Organics programs, on the other hand, are new and still developing. Though organic diversion rates remain low, at only 3 percent last year, the interest is there. As of July, 43 percent of eligible households in Minneapolis had adopted its curbside organics program, surpassing the city\u2019s goal of 40 percent uptake.<\/p>\n
Thus, just as Selton focused largely on composting as she changed her habits during the Zero Waste Challenge, the county\u2019s newest initiatives aim to increase organics recycling among its residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganics recycling is \u2013 pardon the bad pun \u2013 low hanging fruit,\u201d said Paul Kroening, recycling program manager for Hennepin County. \u201cA third of what we\u2019re throwing away today could be recycled in an organics recycling program, so we\u2019re working on developing a lot of organics recycling in the next three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n