editorials

If the choice before the Minneapolis City Council's Planning and Zoning Committee next Thursday were simply between more burning and more reducing, recycling and composting of trash, the right pick would be obvious. The committee would follow the city Planning Commission's lead, and disallow sending about 20 percent more trash per day to the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC, or, in common parlance, the garbage burner).

Those contracts are nearing expiration. So is an agreement to deliver 175,000 tons per year of Hennepin trash to another waste-to-energy incinerator in Elk River. Hennepin's use of the Elk River burner will end next month.

That makes this an opportune moment for a push for recycling and composting more waste. McLaughlin says he and his fellow board members are intent on keeping the trash that had been going to Elk River out of landfills. Sending an additional 40,000 tons per year to HERC will help them achieve that goal, at least until the anticipated new program to encourage county residents to become more thorough recyclers and composters is implemented.

Opponents of increasing the amount of garbage burned at HERC are rightfully concerned about the adequacy of the environmental review that has been done to date on the county's request. It relies too heavily on the environmental impact statement done for Target Field. Fans attending occasional baseball games don't have nearly as much exposure to the burner's emissions as nearby city residents do.

But a thorough environmental review is the responsibility of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and that's the next hurdle for the county's request. The MPCA won't get into the act until an amended conditional use permit from the city is in hand.

On average, Minneapolis dwellers recycle 10 percent less of their garbage than residents do countywide. That means Minneapolis officials in particular should understand that the county will need to spend some money to sell residents on more recycling and composting. And city officials, more than most, should understand how tight government resources are, and are going to stay in years ahead.

Using the garbage burner to its full capacity will generate an additional $1.5 million per year that can finance new recycling and composting efforts. If the county is willing to commit to using those revenues in that way, the city should grant the permit it seeks.