Solid Waste Management Plan

Person dropping orange peel into green Organics container

The Hennepin County Solid Waste Management Plan will detail how the county implements state policy to reduce waste, increase recycling and advance a zero-waste future. It is written to respond to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Metro Solid Waste Policy Plan with a 20-year vision and updated every six years.

The foundation of this plan will be the county’s Zero Waste Plan, developed in 2023 to meet the county’s goal of diverting 90% or more of waste from landfills or incinerators. The county further prioritized the highest impact zero-waste actions in the Plan to Reinvent Hennepin County’s Solid Waste System to accelerate the closure and repurposing of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC).

Follow along to stay informed on the process to advance zero-waste in Hennepin County.

The Hennepin County Solid Waste Management Plan will detail how the county implements state policy to reduce waste, increase recycling and advance a zero-waste future. It is written to respond to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Metro Solid Waste Policy Plan with a 20-year vision and updated every six years.

The foundation of this plan will be the county’s Zero Waste Plan, developed in 2023 to meet the county’s goal of diverting 90% or more of waste from landfills or incinerators. The county further prioritized the highest impact zero-waste actions in the Plan to Reinvent Hennepin County’s Solid Waste System to accelerate the closure and repurposing of the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC).

Follow along to stay informed on the process to advance zero-waste in Hennepin County.

  • Community engagement approach

    14 Jun 2024

    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)(External link) 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)(External link).

    Staff are engaging city recycling coordinators(External link) 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(External link), engage the county’s Trusted Messengers(External link) 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.

  • New MPCA plan calls for 15 percent reduction in Twin Cities waste

    In January 2024, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) released the Metro Solid Waste Policy Plan 2022-2042(External link), which includes 70 strategies for improving how the seven-county metro area manages a growing waste problem. The 20-year plan aims to reduce waste across the Twin Cities with strategies ranging from requiring curbside compost pickup to fees for takeout containers and grants for businesses to reduce food waste.

    Hennepin County and other metro area counties are required to submit a county-specific plan that responds to the required and optional strategies in the Metro Solid Waste Policy Plan.

    More trash is generated every year in the Twin Cities, and efforts to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfills continue to be a challenge. The region generated 3.3 million tons of waste in 2021, and this number is expected to grow 19% by 2042. The Twin Cities recycling rate rose slightly last year to 49% — far less than the state’s goal of achieving a 75% recycling rate by 2030.

    Hennepin County will work with the MPCA and engage cities, haulers, residents, and other stakeholders to develop a county-specific plan to meet the requirements included in the Metro Solid Waste Plan.

    The county will focus its engagement on the following required strategies:

    • Place increased priority on waste prevention and reuse programs.
    • Make residential curbside organics available in cities with population > 5,000.
    • Develop plans to prevent and manage wood waste.
    • Reduce barriers and increase participation in household hazardous waste services.
    • Establish mandatory pre-processing of waste to recover recyclables from the trash.

    The county will draft the plan in spring and early summer. The foundation of this plan will be the county’s Zero Waste Plan, developed in 2023 to meet the county’s goal of diverting 90% or more of waste from landfills or incinerators. The county anticipates releasing the draft Solid Waste Management Plan for public comment in August and submit it for board consideration and approval in the fall. The plan must be submitted to the MPCA by October 29, 2024.

Page last updated: 01 Nov 2024, 09:25 AM