Food scraps pickup program delayed for Roseville
Maplewood, North Saint Paul, and much of Washington County can put food scrap bags directly into their trash bin to be hauled away for recycling
Ramsey and Washington Counties have been rolling out a new Food Scraps Pickup Program for cities across both counties, but it won’t be available to Roseville residents until late 2026 or 2027.
Through this program, residents can collect food scraps and send them out for recycling and composting in a County-provided, durable food scrap bag with their regular garbage hauler. Maplewood and North Saint Paul are the two Ramsey County cities already participating in the program. Much of Washington County is already included. Roseville, Saint Paul, and all of the cities indicated in blue and orange in the map below are still waiting to be added.
Mary Jo McGuire, Ramsey County commissioner, and Rae Eden Frank, Ramsey County’s public health deputy director, presented an update to the Roseville City Council about the program on October 14, 2024.
“For so many years it was just talked about and talked about and talked about, and so the fact that it actually is happening in some communities is a great accomplishment,” Frank told the Council.
Very similar to the home collection process, residents bag up their compost in bags provided by the County for free. Instead of driving the food scraps to a drop-off location yourself, participants can place the bag directly in their trash bin. Then the garbage truck will take it to the Recycling & Energy Center in Newport. Once there, artificial intelligence technology has been trained to identify the compost bags from the rest of the trash.
“It is quite phenomenal to see the robots in action,” Frank said in the meeting.
You can see the robot sorting food scrap bags from the trash in this video by MPR News on YouTube:
According to Ramsey County, twenty percent of trash collected is food scraps. This program will help the County achieve its goal of reducing reliance on landfills and turning waste into energy.
“We are actually leading the country in this effort and at this extent,” McGuire said to the Council.
Recycling food scraps is beneficial for multiple reasons, Sam Holl, Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy facility manager, explained to the Roseville Reader. In addition to reducing waste—which by weight is the largest portion of our trash—recycling food scraps combats climate change by reducing the amount of methane released by landfills, he said.
“Because food scraps are wet, they require more energy to burn at waste-to-energy facilities than other types of waste,” Holl explained.
Composting food scraps also improves soil health.
“When added to soil, compost promotes healthier plant growth and reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. It also improves water retention, which conserves water and helps prevent erosion, which can pollute our water,” according to Holl.
Unfortunately, the Food Scraps Pickup Program is not yet available to Roseville. This is because the technology used to sort the food scrap bags from the rest of the trash is at the Newport facility, and most haulers servicing Roseville bring trash to a transfer station first.
“By offering these locations where trash can be consolidated before it’s delivered to the R&E Center, trash trucks don’t have to drive as much, thus preventing vehicle emissions and wear and tear on roads,” Sam Holl told the Roseville Reader.
McGuire explained to the Council that the electronic eyes and equipment used to pick out the compost bags from the trash need to be brought into these transfer stations. That wasn’t anticipated when the County first envisioned this program.
Since 2020, the County has been evaluating partnering with transfer stations to offer food scrap bag sortation services.
“The timeline for establishing these relationships and infrastructure has taken longer than anticipated, as we’ve sought solutions that work for multiple municipalities, both counties and potential partner vendors, while navigating the different permitting and siting requirements that potential solutions would entail,” Holl explained.
In November 2022, they initiated a competitive solicitation process for selecting vendors to assist with sortation, ultimately resulting in the selection of Walters Sanitation and Waste Management transfer stations as partners for the program.
“Once this sortation capacity is established at transfer stations, we’ll be able to offer the Food Scraps Pickup Program in communities such as Roseville,” Holl explained.
Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, and Saint Anthony Village are on the same rollout schedule as Roseville, with the City of Saint Paul to follow, according to the “phases” indicated on the Program Rollout map above. The communities that are closest to Newport are the ones who are already able to take advantage of the program, McGuire explained to the Council.
“It’s been very frustrating for me,” McGuire said during the City Council meeting. “Several years ago I kept saying, ‘It’s coming to Roseville!’ And it is coming to Roseville, but not as soon as we’d all like it to come to Roseville.”
Frank estimates that Roseville will be able to participate 18-24 months after the start of 2025—so roughly late 2026 or early 2027. In the meantime, Ramsey County residents can personally deliver their food scraps to Ramsey County food scrap drop-off sites. The site in Roseville is located within the Leaf Recycling Site at 2480 Dale St. N. Caddy-sized compost bags can also be picked up free-of-charge at Roseville City Hall or the Dale Street drop-off site.
Once the new Environmental Service Center opens in Roseville in spring 2025, Ramsey County residents can bring their food scraps there too.
“We’re very committed to this process,” McGuire told the Council. The County is also working on getting an anaerobic digestive system and is trying to get state funding to help with that, McGuire said. And then the food scraps can be processed and turned into energy and compost, she explained.
According to the Recycling & Energy Center website, Ramsey and Washington Counties have partnered with Dem-Con HZI Bioenergy, LLC. to build an anaerobic digestion facility to process food scraps and other organic material. This proposed facility will be located in Scott County near Shakopee and will process up to 75,000 tons of organic waste each year. About 50,000 tons will come from the Food Scraps Pickup Program and organic materials recovered at the R&E Center.
“We know that community members are eager for this great program, which will let them conveniently recycle their food scraps from home. We are excited for it to be available to everyone in the two counties in the coming years,” Holl said.
Learn more about the Food Scraps Pickup Program at FoodScrapsPickup.com or by calling 651-661-9393. Residents can visit the “Program Availability” page for updates on program rollout and sign up to receive email updates.
Recycling & Energy Center in Newport
All trash generated by individuals and businesses in Ramsey and Washington Counties is required to be delivered and processed at the R&E Center in Newport, which is co-owned by both counties. According to the R&E website, the Center manages about 450,000 tons of trash per year.
“At the facility, trash is processed to recover recyclable metals and make fuel for producing electricity. Through this system, R&E is maximizing the recovery of resources and diverting as much as possible from landfills,” the website states.
In 2023, the R&E Center was able to produce enough fuel for Xcel power plans to produce enough electricity to power 13,450 homes for a year. The R&E Center is not a waste-to-energy facility, but it processes the waste and turns it into fuel that can be used at waste-to-energy facilities in Red Wing and Mankato.
Additionally, last year 12,029 tons of metal were recovered from the trash to be recycled and 99,500 fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide were produced than if the trash had been landfilled.
For more information
Learn more about the Recycling & Energy Center online here or watch this informational video on YouTube:
Watch the Ramsey County presentation to the City Council on October 14, 2024:
From other local news sources:
Ramsey and Washington counties launch innovative food scrap recycling program (MPR News, April 1, 2024)
Food scrap pickup program expands to 19 new Washington County communities (Pioneer Press, October 7, 2024)
More from the Roseville Reader:
Correction 11/24/2024: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that all of Washington County was already included in the food scraps pickup program. The following Washington County municipalities are not yet included: Forest Lake, Hugo, Marine, May Township, Scandia, and White Bear Lake (shared with Ramsey County).