Minnesota agency proposes waste, recycling changes

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has released a drafted 20-year plan that includes 70 recommendations involving changes to waste and recycling programs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region.

The MPCA Metropolitan Solid Waste Policy Plan 2022-2042 has been designed to address how the seven-county metropolitan area manages a growing waste problem, the agency says.

The 20-year plan aims to reduce waste across the Twin Cities metro area with strategies including weekly curbside trash, recycling and compost pickup, fees for restaurant takeout containers and grants for businesses to reduce food waste.

The agency says the Twin Cities area generates more trash every year, adding that efforts to reduce the amount that goes to landfills continue to be challenging.

According to MPCA, the region generated 3.3 million tons of waste in 2021, and that number is expected to grow 19 percent by 2042. Recycling rates have remained stagnant in recent years at around 45 percent, which the agency says is far less than the state’s goal of achieving a 75 percent recycling rate by 2030, while some counties are seeing a decrease in recycling rates. 

“We must do more to meet our waste reduction, recycling and composting goals,” says Kirk Koudelka, assistant commissioner for land policy and strategic initiatives at MPCA. “These goals are ambitious. Meeting them will require deep collaboration between local governments, individuals and businesses.”  

Recommendations in the draft plan include collecting recycling weekly in all seven metro counties by 2025; collecting recyclables, organics and trash on the same day; making residential curbside composting collection available in cities with a population greater than 5,000; providing grants to businesses and organizations for software to track food waste; adopting an ordinance with a mandatory consumer charge for takeout single-use cups, containers, and utensils; and improving recycling data collection at businesses. 

Of the 3.3 million tons of waste generated each year, more than two-thirds of what ends up in landfills could be recycled or reused, MPCA estimates.

The agency is seeking input from the public through August and will host a public meeting on the plan in the Twin Cities area July 11.

Once the plan is finalized, MPCA says it will help local governments and businesses implement the recommendations to reduce the amount of trash in Twin Cities landfills and meet its goal of achieving a 75 percent recycling rate by 2030.

The full draft of the 2022-2042 Metropolitan Solid Waste Plan can be found here.