Editorial: Taking a big step in organics recycling

Hennepin County should resolve conflict with local recyclers.

Last update: March 20, 2009 - 6:40 PM

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Tucked in a nondescript industrial park just south of downtown Osseo is the vast concrete complex that is the Hennepin County Transfer Station. If you live or work in Minneapolis and surrounding communities, there's a good chance that whatever you throw away will wind up here after local garbage haulers pick it up.

The amount of trash is stunning. The county generates about 3,000 tons of waste a day, a figure that doesn't really register until seeing the mountain of it that is collected here and readied for disposal. It's hard to imagine how much bigger the pile would be -- or how many more facilities would be needed -- without the strides that have been made in recycling in recent decades. Twenty years ago, just 5 to 10 percent of Hennepin County's waste was recycled. Now that figure hovers around 45 percent. Carl Michaud, the county's director of environmental services, believes it's possible to reach 75 percent one day. One key to hitting that laudable goal? Something called organics recycling.

Organics recycling is just a fancy term for making use of food from restaurants, grocery stores and county residents. It's the next frontier in recycling because it's a big chunk of what's still in the waste stream. Food still usable but no longer wanted by grocery stores, for example, may be useful for organizations working with the poor. Waste food can also be converted to animal feed or composted and turned into a soil enrichment product.

Hennepin County officials are understandably interested in expanding organics recycling opportunities. But some well-intentioned steps have brought them into conflict with several local recycling firms that have long been converting waste food into animal feed. An outspoken advocate for the firms is Harry Hjermstad of Barthold Farms Inc., which collects fees from local businesses and organizations to pick up food waste. It converts it into hog feed for a family farm near St. Francis.

Hjermstad raises valid concerns that the county program may undercut Barthold Farms by subsidizing food waste collectors that have a different niche in organics recycling: converting food to compost. County money pays to transport food waste from the Brooklyn Park transfer station to two compost operations in Rosemount and Chanhassen. Firms like Barthold's absorb hauling costs and reflect it in their fees, while the composting firms, which may not transport it as far and don't require clients to separate out waste paper, may be able to charge less to collect food. Hjermstad has already discounted fees but said he has lost customers.

Michaud of Hennepin County said he doesn't want to lose the expanded recycling opportunities that the program has led to. At the same time, he doesn't dismiss Hjermstad's concerns. One potential solution, he said, would be to increase fees for some food waste collectors that dump at the Brooklyn Park transfer station. That would help level the playing field among food recycling firms. Having the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency streamline permitting for new long-term composting operations could also help. This would create more competition, drop the price of disposing food waste through composting and potentially allow the county to increase residential organics recycling and phase out its subsidy.

Ending the subsidy is a good goal. Broadening organics recycling opportunities is praiseworthy, but the county can do more to ensure that it's not putting firms like Barthold's at a competitive disadvantage. Michaud said the county is willing to work with the firms. We encourage them to take him up on his offer. The goal is the same for both sides: finding better, environmentally friendly uses for the mountain of waste generated each day.

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