History:  The county board adopted the Solid Waste Management Plan in 2012, which established new and significantly more aggressive goals for recycling and composting of municipal solid waste.  These goals are to recycle 60% and divert 15% of organic materials from the waste stream by 2030. To reach our waste reduction and recycling goals, the county awards grants to schools as a financial incentive to explore new opportunities to reduce, reuse, recycle or compost waste. The county’s school recycling grant program is available to public and private K-12 schools.  To date, 15 annual grant cycles have been completed. Through the school recycling grant program, 125 projects have been funded for a total of $1.7 million.

In 2016, we surveyed schools to estimate the amount of recycling, organics, and trash they produce based on their hauling levels. Minneapolis Public Schools and Richfield Public Schools both responded to the survey.  Minneapolis Public Schools is currently collecting approximately 747 tons of organics, 1,580 tons of recycling, and 2,690 tons of trash each school year. By these estimates, their diversion rate is 46%. Of their 60 schools, 34 are currently collecting organics.  Richfield Public Schools is currently collecting approximately 69 tons of organics, 57 tons of recycling, and 213 tons of trash each school year. Their estimated diversion rate is 37%.

School districts in Hennepin County with well established, district-wide organics programs have diversion rates of 60-67%. With our support, Minneapolis and Richfield Public Schools will expand their recycling and organics programs, and their diversion rates should increase.

There are nine additional grant agreements for school recycling projects that will be approved administratively because their funding requests and other agreements with the county are less than $50,000 each. Those nine grant projects total $59,721 and are with the following schools: Arete Academy (St. Louis Park), Cristo Rey Jesuit High School (Minneapolis), Edina Public Schools, Good Shepard School (Golden Valley), Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School (St. Louis Park), International Spanish Language Academy (Minnetonka), LoveWorks Academy (Golden Valley), Noble Academy (Brooklyn Park), and Venture Academy (Minneapolis).

Current Request:  This request is for County Administrator authorization to negotiate two agreements for school recycling grant projects for the period June 27, 2017 through July 15, 2019 for the total combined not-to-exceed amount of $90,000, as follows:

• Minneapolis Public Schools (Special School District 1) - $40,000.  Minneapolis Public Schools will carry out grant projects at four schools.Anderson United Community School and Seward Montessori will start collecting organics in the cafeteria and paper towels from the restrooms for composting. Both schools will expand their recycling programs to all classrooms as well as common areas. Southwest High School will start an organics recycling program by collecting organics in the cafeteria and paper towels from the restrooms. Webster Elementary will start collecting organics throughout the school and add outdoor recycling stations.

   

• Richfield Public Schools (Independent School District 280) - $50,000. Richfield Public Schools will improve its recycling program by adding recycling stations outside buildings and at athletic fields. The district will improve organics and recycling collection in the elementary and middle school cafeterias. They will start collecting paper towels from the restrooms for organics recycling. The district will also install bottle-filling stations, thereby reducing waste from single-use plastic water bottles.

Approval of grant agreements with Minneapolis Public Schools and Richfield Public Schools requires board approval because each school district has executed contracts with the county that exceed $50,000.

Impact/Outcomes:  The recommended school recycling grant projects support county goals to recycle or compost 75% of waste by 2030.

Approval of the agreements will improve the collection of recyclable materials and organic materials in schools. The growth of recycling and organics recycling at schools has multiple benefits, including:

• Increase in recycling of bottles, cans, cartons, and paper.

• Increase in organics recycling of food waste and non-recyclable papers.

• Increase influence of organics recycling in the community, which supports the expansion of programs at homes and businesses.