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m. Deciding Where Our Trash Goes . According to Minnesota's Waste Management Act, the goal of waste management of the state is "to foster an integrated waste management system in a marUler appropriate to the characteristics of the waste stream and thereby protect the state's land, air, water, and other natural resources and the public health." (1) The statute gives the following order of preference for waste management practices: L Waste reduction and reuse 2. Recycling 3. Composting of yard waste and food waste 4. Resource recovery through mixed municipal solid waste composting or incineration. 5. Land disposal (landfill) that does not produce methane gas or which captures the gas to use as fuel for the production of energy 6. Land disposal that produces methane gas and does not capture it for energy production. (2) The state's Office ofEnvironrnentaJ Assistance, in its vision statement, gives as a further goal, "to minimize landfi1ling, with an increased focus on maximizing reduction, reuse, recycling and source-separated composting." (3) Falcon Heights' goals, adopted in January, 2004, are in line with both the state hierarchy . and the goals in the OEA report. The Commission's vision for a solid waste system includes the continuation and expansion of the citywide curbside recycling we now enjoy, movement toward composting of yard waste and other compostables, and resource recovery, that is, sending Falcon Heights garbage to the Newport Resource Recovery Facility. Resource Recovery The Resource Recovery Facility in Newport is one of three plants in the Twin Cities area tbat prepare municipal solid waste as a fuel to produce electricity. Commissioners visited the Newport plant on April 12. According to staff at the facility municipal solid waste is the best material for processing because it goes through quickly and burns evenly. Commissioners learned that 78% or more of the waste processed becomes fuel, 3% is recovered ferrous metal, half a percent is recovered aluminum. The remaining residual material is sent on to landfill. The ash left over at the end of incineration also must be landfill ed, but it amounts to a small fraction of the volume of the original waste. From Newport the prepared waste is trucked to burning facilities in Red wing or Mankato. Commissioners were told that these burners are very "clean" technology; each one produces about as much pollution in a year as a single old fashioned back yard incinerator. According to Gary White, plant manager, the facility produces fuel for enough energy to supply about 30,000 homes, or enough for, say, Woodbury and Oalcdale combined. . City of Falcon Heights Final Report on Organized Collection October 13, 2004 18