Linden Hills talks trash

Greasy pizza boxes, chicken bones, used paper towels -- they're in many ways the dirty symbols of modern life, hidden in containers in dark alleys for weekly removal.

But in Linden Hills, they could mean light.

People in the southwest Minneapolis neighborhood are about to start a mass collection of food scraps, non-recyclable paper and yard waste to turn over to a commercial compost producer. But they're also looking beyond just so much rot -- when that same waste would generate electricity, right in Linden Hills, perhaps even powering Southwest High School.

An urban community-scale "anaerobic digester" could be the first of its kind in the nation, putting Linden Hills in a global spotlight. But in the neighborhood, the idea is instead to shrink the mark households make on the environment, harnessing the energy of residents committed to doing something about climate change.

"When I first heard about global warming, I thought, 'Oh, some environmentalists will come along and take care of it,' " said Felicity Britton.

She's the executive director of the nonprofit climate-care group that calls itself Linden Hills Power and Light. "But eventually you get the idea that it's got to be all of us. "

'Just take some steps'

In Linden Hills, that idea has been the spark behind the alternative "utility." Only two years ago, neighborhood children's bookstore owner Tom Braun had been hearing so many people looking for ways to cut down their resource and energy use that he got several of his friends and neighbors together with polar explorer and climate-protection activist Will Steger, an acquaintance of his. Steger urged them to do "anything -- just take some steps," Britton said.

When someone at the meeting complained about too many cars lined up and idling outside neighborhood schools, the first project was born: a bike-to-school day. More than 100 kids rode. Then neighbors went door to door pitching the Minnesota Energy Challenge, an analysis of household energy use and carbon-dioxide emissions. Each resident who agreed to take part received a compact fluorescent light bulb. Organizers gave away 1,800 bulbs in the community of 4,000 households.

Then they got the idea that they could make their own electricity. The digester grew from that, and Linden Hills Power and Light pulled down $75,000 in grants from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Commerce to study whether it might work.

Anaerobic digesters, now in use on industrial farms, sewage treatment plants and other large-scale operations, are sealed vessels that capture methane and carbon dioxide from decaying organic matter.

The waste recycling program is much closer to reality, and a stepping stone toward the digester project. Bones, meat scraps and non-recyclable papers, now mostly hauled away with the trash, would instead be separated by householders and combined with yard waste. Braun said milfoil, an invasive weed scooped all summer from the Chain of Lakes, might also get added to the compostables.

Reducing methane

Some suburbs have done similar "source-separated organics" experiments, but the Linden Hills project would be the largest undertaken in Minnesota. Hennepin County organics recycling specialist John Jaimez said that extending the program could reduce the amount of methane -- a more potent but shorter-lived greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide -- that is emitted by landfills.

In February, Linden Hills Power and Light called for volunteer block captains to get the word out on the program. Fifty people showed up for a meeting at Braun's home when the temperature reached minus 11. Some even wondered whether they could get captain's hats to wear while going door to door.

Lately, Britton said, she's been getting a half-dozen e-mails or phone calls daily from people wondering where their "source-separated organics" cart is.

"They've been relentless," said Susan Young, director of solid waste and recycling for the city of Minneapolis.

Other cities and neighborhoods also are pursuing a wide range of energy and climate initiatives. But even in a neighborhood like Linden Hills -- high on amenities, income and education, and already home to a solar-powered food co-op -- a group like Linden Hills Power and Light puts some additional organizational power behind the issue.

"Our impression is that they've got folks in their community who are very passionate and very educated about the issue," said Katya Pilling, associate director of Seward Redesign, a Minneapolis community development group that has offered to make some industrial land available for a community digester if Linden Hills can't. "Also, they've worked really hard and done amazing things in terms of outreach. It's not just luck, but a lot of effort and initiative to get people engaged."

Board members from Linden Hills Power and Light also recently met with officials from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, who are considering building a digester near one of their casinos.

"We're going to have a very small impact on [climate change]," Braun said. "But what I've felt is most important is that other groups and neighborhoods, hearing our story will be saying, 'If they can do it, why can't we?'"

Clearly, Linden Hills Power and Light resembles a stodgy power producer in name only. At a board meeting Wednesday, someone suggested using the natural gas from the digester to power a greenhouse for tomatoes.

"We could open an Italian restaurant!" someone blurted out. That suggestion didn't make the minutes.

"It sounds like a utility, but we're also hoping the empowerment and enlightenment come through," Britton said.

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646