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Eureka Recycling | 2828 Kennedy St NE | Minneapolis, MN 55413
(651) 222-7678 | FAX (651) 623-3277 | info@eurekarecycling.org
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Curbside Composting

Many communities are beginning programs to collect compostable material at the curb (similar to recycling) and take it to commercial-scale facilities where it is processed into compost. A benefit of these facilities is that their controlled process allows for the composting of even more than we can at home, like meat, bones, dairy, and non-recyclable paper like pizza boxes, egg cartons, and paper plates. 
 

What's Happening in Saint Paul?

Eureka Recycling is conducting a temporary residential composting project in a section of 1100 households in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood. Focusing in a small area allows us to take a close look at the issues and benefits of several possible ways to get our food waste out of the trash. This project will generate much-needed information to design a citywide composting program that has the highest benefits for our environment while considering costs and how the people who will use the program prefer to compost.


This project examines the following:
•    Stop Wasting Food: Using cooking, shopping, and food storage tips to not make so much food waste in the first place (which saves us money too);
•    Backyard Composting: Composting in backyards and with worms so we can use it on our gardens to grow food and flowers;
•    Composting Collection: Collecting materials in different ways, including by bike, truck and drop-off, because we don’t all have the means to compost at home;
•    Making Dirt: Processing materials in different ways, including windrows and anaerobic digestion, to turn it into soil in large amounts away from home once it is collected; and
•    Uses for the Finished Compost: Using the material that comes out of those different processes in different ways, including growing food, construction projects, landscaping and more.

See our full project description for more information.

 
What’s happening in other Minnesota communities?
There are lots of examples of communities that are collecting composting.  The most exciting are from communities in Minnesota and climates like ours. Here are a few examples:

•    Linden Hills Neighborhood (Minneapolis):  Community organization Linden Hills Power and Light is working with the City of Minneapolis on a curbside composting collection pilot in their neighborhood with the hopes of expanding to more neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
•    Hennepin County:  Residents in several cities in Hennepin County can add composting collection to their trash collection service on a subscription basis.
•    Duluth:  Residents in Duluth can drop off food waste for composting at sites operated by Western Lake Superior Sanitary District.
•    Hutchinson: Hutchinson has a city-wide curbside composting collection program that has a 98% participation rate!

For a full list of what’s happening around the nation, see BioCycle’s December 2009 “U.S. Residential Food Waste Collection And Composting” article.