Community engagement approach

Facilitating public involvement is an essential part of preparing the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan. The county’s approach includes the following actions.

Building from the broad base of learning from the development of the Zero Waste Plan

The county’s Zero Waste Plan (PDF) was developed with extensive public feedback from more than 1,800 participants over the previous two years. Staff will build from these key findings as we gather additional input on how to implement the zero-waste actions and organize these actions to meet the objectives defined in the state’s metro policy plan.

Learn more about the learnings from the development of the Zero Waste Plan, including what we heard during the first phase of engagement focused on community members typically not reached during solid waste planning processes and key findings from the public comment process.

Gathering further input on implementation of prioritized zero-waste actions, especially with cities and haulers

Cities play an important role in implementing recycling services, from contracting for service delivery to the face-to-face interaction with residents in providing these services. County administrators met with city managers in May to discuss the Plan to Reinvent Hennepin County’s Solid Waste System (PDF).

Staff are engaging city recycling coordinators on select strategies that affect their cities and residents – both required strategies that the county must implement and optional strategies the county is considering for implementation. Two in-person meetings with city recycling coordinators were held in May and two virtual meetings were held in June.

Staff are also reaching out to waste haulers to gather their input on implementing the Zero Waste Plan and prioritized actions.

Educating residents on the amount of waste produced, engaging in solutions, and building support for needed policy and behavior change

To gather additional feedback from residents, the county will conduct a statistically representative survey of approximately 500 residents across all seven districts of the county. The survey will collect people’s opinions on residential recycling and organics programs and level of support for various actions to meet the county’s zero-waste goals.

Leveraging outreach opportunities with partners to maximize community connections

Staff will also be leveraging existing outreach opportunities with partners to connect with community on zero-waste actions. Staff will attend community events held by Green Partners grantees, engage the county’s Trusted Messengers program participants, and attend other meetings or events throughout the summer.

Learnings from this phase of engagement will be shared as soon as they are complied.