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a fee for disposal of brush. Little Canada and Shoreview as do other cities chip the brush, use some for City projects and malce the majority available for residents to pick up free of charge. Shoreview Environment Officer Gene Kruckenberg says the program is so popular the City will offer once a month brush drop off days throughout the summer in 2002. The drawbacks are that the program is labor intensive and Shoreview has to pay to dispose of stumps that can't be ground up with the City's chipper. 01'ganlCS Co11eCt1on: Organics are plant, food and paper products that can be easily composted into a desirable product. Organics can be separated from other trash and collected as part of a municipal program. As mentioned earlier, commercial organics composting facilities are able to accept meat and dairy products that shouldn't go in backyard composts. That's be- cause compost piles at commercial facilities reach higher temperatures that kill bacteria in meat and dairy products. Commercial compost facilities can also accept pizza boxes and waxed containers that can't be put in with curbside recycling. The City of Hutchinson operates a curbside �. r�• , _-. � � ,� _ arganics collection program with its hauler Waste �,' '��,�,�� 3� �� �., ,�; Management. Each participating household is - >.;; ,;�, r_ t , ra: given a 90 gallon wheeled organics cart similar to �" �_ - ��t� ��' ' a trash cart (see photo at right) and 8 specia120 �� °"`�_ _-� �� gallon kitchen waste compostable bags per month - (residents can buy more bags or use paper shop- '� - ping bags if they have greater volume). Residents ��'�� can put in food waste; compostable cardboard such as pizza and freezer boxes; paper products such as paper plates, napkins and paper towels along with yard waste (yard waste doesn't need to be bagged). A Food Waste Recovery truck picks up the organics and hauls them to the City run compost facility. Hutchinson actively promotes organics collection as a way for residents to reduce their garbage and that if residents switch to a smaller size garbage container and/or to every other week service it will save residents money. The participation rate is right around 85% (3,900 residentia] homes). Approximately 50% of residents have downsized their garbage container. The City pays for the program through resident fees, a state grant, funding from McLeod County, general City funds, sale of finished compost and through reduced landfill tipping fees. In 2001 St. Paul conducted a pilot program on curbside collection of organics. Participants were given biodegradable bags for residents to collect the food waste and non-recyclable paper prod- ucts such as pizza boxes and waxed cartons. The organics were then put in a wheeled cart. Crews collected the organics weekly. The organics were taken to the Food Waste and Compost Facility in Rosemount. Eureka Recycling (formerly the Neighborhood Energy Consortium) which coordinates St. Paul's recycling programs found a high level of participation in the pilot area and residents wanted to continue with organics collection. Eureka Recycling is currently eXploring ways that it might be able to offer curbside organics collection. 67