2018_01-23_PWETCpacket - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Interview Findings Through the interviews conducted with city representatives, the different organics recycling programs implemented throughout the Twin Cities were evaluated. Three of the cities interviewed currently have a curbside organics collection program. The City of Minneapolis collects organics recycling in separate carts and is a unified city in that all the haulers are under a contract that requires them to provide organics recycling collection to its residents. The City of Saint Louis Park has organized collection for trash, recycling, yard waste, and organics recycling. They have two haulers, one that collects the trash and recycling and one that collects the yard waste and organics. Organics recycling is co -mingled with yard waste and collected in a separate cart from trash and recycling. The City of Elk River uses the Blue Bag program to collect their organics recycling. Elk River has two haulers they contract with; both pick up the Blue Bags with the trash collection. The other two cities, Saint Paul and Fridley, currently have drop-off sites available for residents to bring their organics recycling. The City of Fridley is in the process of developing a curbside program for their residents. Currently, they have drop-off sites located outside of the city that are available for their residents to use. The City of Saint Paul has six drop-off site locations available to their residents. All city representatives mentioned common attributes that make organics recycling programs more successful. Outreach and education were found to be the most important aspects of any organics recycling program, whether curbside or drop-off. They increase awareness of programs available to residents, which is the first step in improving recycling behaviors. Ongoing education is important to reduce contamination of other materials in carts and at drop- off sites. Overall, outreach increases initial enrollment and participation rates of residents. Saint Louis Park and Minneapolis both reported an increase in signups for their curbside program after sending out direct mailers with return postage (Horner, 2017; Fisher, 2017). To encourage resident participation, incentives are important as well. Many cities and counties provide compostable bags at no cost to residents, and may also provide kitchen pails or carts. Participation depends on the ease of the program, and reducing barriers by increasing convenience for residents encourages the use of programs (Fonfara, 2017; Fisher 2017). Convenience and ease of use are important aspects of any organics recycling program. Another attribute identified as important for a successful curbside program was organized hauling or a unified contract with all the haulers. Cities that have either organized hauling or a unified contract, in which haulers are required to offer organics recycling pick up to residents, have an easier time implementing a curbside program. If all haulers are required to collect organics recycling this can increase route density which reduces cost of pickup. Case Studies Interviews with city representatives, data gathered from document review, and evaluations of the three types of organics recycling programs informed the case studies. The drop-off, curbside cart, and curbside Blue Bag program types were compared based on monthly recurring costs, outreach methods, and resident participation as was discussed in the methodologies section of this report. Blue Bag The Blue Bag program is a type of curbside organics collection in which the resident places their organic recycling in a compostable bag on top of their trash. When cities have this type 8