History: Ordinance 13 regulates recycling, which is the separation of recyclables and organic materials from trash, by residents, businesses, and other waste generators.

The State of Minnesota gives authority to counties to manage solid waste. Hennepin County Ordinance 13 was adopted in 1986 to create residential curbside recycling programs. Since then, recycling has expanded to serve residents everywhere, such as at work, school and public spaces. New programs have been created to capture organic materials.

The county’s 2018 Solid Waste Management Master Plan calls for revising the county’s recycling ordinance to improve conventional recycling and for requiring organics recycling for cities and businesses to meet the state goal of 75 percent recycling (mandated by Minnesota Statutes, section 115A.551, subdivision 2a) and the county goal of sending zero waste to landfills (Resolution 17-0479).

The county completed an extensive public engagement plan to revise the ordinance.

• From December 2017 to May 2018, county staff sought input on how to best engage key stakeholders and what provisions the county should pursue when revising the ordinance. Staff met with trade associations, held meetings, and conducted surveys. Staff received input from 316 participants, including city representatives, trade associations, waste haulers, property managers, businesses, and the broader community.

• The county distributed its draft revisions to the recycling ordinance on July 23, 2018, and notified 16,000 stakeholders through mailings, emails and surveys. Staff reviewed the 350 comments received and edited the ordinance based on this feedback.

• The next draft of the revisions was posted online on September 17, 2018, and stakeholders were notified about the opportunity to comment at the public hearing or in writing to the department.

• A public hearing on the proposed revision to Ordinance 13 was held before the Public Works Committee of the county board on October 2, 2018. The department received seven letters and the board heard comments from 18 individuals at the hearing. The department has since made additional edits to the ordinance and submitted it to the board for consideration.

Current Request: This request is to adopt the revisions to Ordinance 13 – Recycling. The revisions include:

• Cities must make organics recycling service available to all households with curbside recycling service (single-family and dwellings up to four units) by January 1, 2022. Cities of the fourth class (those with a population of 10,000 or less) that choose not to make curbside organics recycling service available to residents must provide at least one organics recycling drop-off site by January 1, 2022.

• Multifamily properties must provide recycling education to residents, offer adequate service for the collection of recyclables (and organics if offered), increase service levels if insufficient, and provide recycling containers in common areas where trash is being collected and label waste containers.

• Businesses that generate large quantities of food waste; such as restaurants, hotels, grocers, residential care facilities, and office buildings with dining services; must implement food waste recycling by January 1, 2020. This requirement would apply to businesses in the identified sectors that generate one ton of trash or more per week or contract for weekly collection of eight or more cubic yards of trash.

• In addition to meeting state recycling requirements, businesses must offer adequate service for the collection of recyclables, increase service levels if insufficient, and label containers.

• The county will have the authority to enforce these requirements, including the ability issue warnings or citations for noncompliance. Businesses and multifamily properties will be given the opportunity to comply before the county would take enforcement action. 

Impact/Outcomes: The revisions to Ordinance 13 would improve conventional recycling, provide residents with the opportunity to participate in organics recycling, and require businesses that generate large amounts of food waste to divert organics from the trash.

Revisions to the ordinance fulfill strategies included in the county’s Solid Waste Management Master Plan to provide convenient and consistent recycling everywhere people go – at home, at work, and on-the go. The revisions to the ordinance will:

• Provide residents with the opportunity to participate in organics recycling.

• Ensure residents who live in multifamily dwellings have adequate access to recycling service.

• Ensure recycling is available at work and create a level playing field for businesses that recycle.

• Support higher route density to make organics recycling more affordable for smaller businesses and continue to lower the cost for residents who participate in organics recycling.

Since organic materials make up 30 percent of trash, diverting food and other organic materials is the biggest opportunity to achieve the county’s recycling goal of sending zero waste to landfills. Putting organics to a better use can help feed people in need, create compost for healthier soils, or create energy through anaerobic digestion. Diverting organics from the trash reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from the decomposition of organic materials in landfills, which produces methane. Composting organics also supports Minnesota jobs. Minnesota’s composting industry supports about 700 jobs and produces $148 million in gross economic activity per year. The composting industry supports four to eight times more jobs on a per ton basis than landfilling operations.