Why taxpayers are subsidizing organic trash pickup in Minneapolis

Hennepin County taxpayers are subsidizing the cost of organic trash pickup to keep residents’ garbage bills lower and boost a program county leaders say is key to reducing waste.

In March, the County Board approved a four-year extension of a $180,000-a-year subsidy for Minneapolis’ organics program. City officials say they use that money to keep the cost down for residents.

Minneapolis was an early adopter of organics recycling. Starting as a pilot in 2008, such recycling has been available citywide since 2016. It’s so popular that Hennepin County, which is responsible for managing trash disposal after it’s been collected, doesn’t have the capacity to handle the 5,000 tons of organic waste the city creates each year.

Instead, it subsidizes the city’s costs to have that organic waste processed. Other cities get a break, too.

Last year, the county spent $1.2 million managing organics but raised only $650,000 from fees charged to trash haulers that take waste to the Brooklyn Park transfer station. From there, it’s trucked to composting facilities in Shakopee and Dakota County’s Empire Township.

That means taxpayers subsidized just under half the cost, roughly $1 for each of the county’s 535,000 households.

Last year, county residents recycled 18,000 tons of organic material, up about 25% from the previous year. That’s largely due to a 2022 mandate that all cities in Hennepin County offer curbside organics pickup.

If organic material goes to a landfill, it takes up a lot of space, and as it breaks down it releases greenhouse gasses like methane. To avoid that, organics can be broken down at a composting facility or anaerobic digester, where greenhouse gasses can be captured and nutrients used as fertilizers.

Some residents and city officials were initially frustrated by the new fees that began showing up on trash bills in 2023. Every trash customer gets charged for organics pickup, but in most cases they have to ask their hauler for an organics bin.

When the County Board approved the latest organics subsidy for Minneapolis in March, commissioners said it was worth the cost to incentivize organics recycling.

As much as 40% of the trash residents create is organic and a lot of that is uneaten food. The county’s “Trash or Cash” initiative aims to encourage residents to eat the food they buy to cut food waste in half.

“Incentivizing all of our cities to recycle organics is important,” said Commissioner Angela Conley. “Let’s also focus on that (uneaten) food and what we can do with it.”

Residents need to dramatically reduce the amount of trash they create if the county is going to meet its “zero waste” goals and close the controversial Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC). Most of the garbage burned at the site is from Minneapolis, where local leaders have also pushed to shutter the incinerator, after community members have criticized its health impacts.

Operators of the HERC maintain its emissions are well controlled.

“I know the city is enthusiastic to close the HERC,” said Commissioner Marion Greene. “I’m looking forward to seeing what their plans are for reducing the trash they generate.”

Minneapolis leaders approved a “zero waste” plan in 2017. But the amount of trash Twin Cities residents are creating is growing, not declining, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Last year, county leaders abandoned plans to build their own organics processing facility. Instead, they’ve asked the Legislature to help fund a garbage sorting facility that would pull recyclables, including organic material, out of the waste stream.