MINNESOTA COMPOSTABLE BAG LAW

MINNESOTA bolstered its ban on land filling yard trimmings recently when the Governor signed into law a bill that forbids the use of conventional plastic bags for yard trimmings collection in the Twin Cities area. It also requires compostable bags to meet ASTM D6400 or be certified by an independent organization. We asked Representative Paul Gardner from the Minnesota, who introduced the bill, for some more details.

Q: Why did you propose the bill and spearhead this initiative?

A: In the Twin Cities metro area, we have various requirements by counties and waste haulers on the use of bags. We have a lot of subscription hauling in Minnesota, so a hauler who wants to require its customers to use a compostable bag can be undercut by a competitor who will take the plastic bags. A city-by-city or county-by-county approach hasn’t really worked to clean out plastic from the yard waste stream, so using legislation to require the use of compostable bags instead of a plastic bag was the most effective way to clean up our compost stream, lower costs for haulers and their customers (haulers pay a higher tip fee when they haul regular plastic bags), and add value to our organic waste.

Many haulers have switched to rolling carts for yard waste, whereas other waste generators use kraft paper bags. Both are fine under the legislation, as is the use of plastic bags to contain yard trimmings being taken to a drop-off site as long as you take the bag with you after emptying it. As luck would have it, we have at least three manufacturers of compostable film in Minnesota, and they were very helpful in explaining the merits of the bill to legislators.

Q: When does the law actually take effect?

A: The bill passed and is now law. It kicks in starting January 1, 2010.

Q: Will residents/businesses be fined for using conventional bags for yard waste? Or how will it be enforced?

A: There is no penalty for generators. But during the summer and fall, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the haulers will be working together on an educational strategy to make sure metro area residents know what the requirements will be. However, part of this strategy will likely be that yard trimmings enclosed in plastic bags won’t get picked up. My hauler will pick it up but they will charge you a debagging fee for the driver to cut the bag and empty its contents.

There is a civil penalty for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers who sell “biodegradable” bags in Minnesota that do not meet an ASTM standard for compostability. We will be working with retailers so that they understand the difference between compostable ASTM 6400 bags and the substandard “biodegradable” or “oxo-degradable” 

bags before 2010.

Q: What are some of the community benefits of this initiative?

A: It is likely that sales of the compostable bags will go up and create some competition that leads to lower bag prices. The environmental and economic benefits are that we will have higher quality compost, which will result in higher demand, which will result in higher finished compost prices and a demand for more organic feedstock. That will make it easier for communities to start up new source separated organics collection programs in the Twin Cities.

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U.S. Residential Food Waste Collection And Composting

BioCycle December 2009, Vol. 50, No. 12, p. 35

More than 90 towns and cities in the U.S. report offering residential food waste collection, showing significant growth.

Rhodes Yepsen

WHILE collection of residential food waste is widespread in parts of Canada and many European countries, the U.S. has lagged behind. However, BioCycle’s nationwide survey this year uncovered more than 90 communities that are offering some type of food waste collection, more than double the number of communities identified in 2007, which reported 42 programs (see “Source Separated Residential Composting,” December 2007). 

MINNESOTA
In November, Minnesota finished a stakeholder process for a comprehensive waste management plan, and released a draft report of recommended strategies. “The group isn’t coming up with a total state plan, but rather is focusing on major populations centers, or ‘centroids,’ where the bulk of the waste is generated,” says Ginny Black with Minnesota Pollution Control Authority (MPCA). “According to the suggested plan, statewide organics goals will be set, with mandatory diversion. However, rural counties would not be required to recycle organics, even though about 41 of 87 counties are already involved with some level of organics recycling.”

Also under consideration is a revision of the state’s composting rules to allow for a third category, to increase food waste processing capacity. It would be less stringent than a solid waste permit, but more controlled than a yard trimmings site permit. “If a statewide goal is established for organics diversion, this will create more demand for food waste composting facilities,” says Black. The revised rule would most likely focus on compost pad surface type, finding an intermediate level between requiring a landfill lining (solid waste permit) and almost no surface requirement at all (yard trimmings composting site). The rules will probably also involve formalized BMPs, such as minimum buffer zones. 

Hennepin County: Several communities in Hennepin County have residential food waste collection. The city of Wayzata started its program in 2005, whereas Minnetonka, Orono and Loretto came online in 2007. “There are also pilot projects for collecting food waste in Linden Hills, a neighborhood in Minneapolis, and in Medina and Medicine Lake,” says John Jaimez, with Hennepin County Department of Environmental Services. “All of Hennepin’s programs collect food waste separately from yard trimmings. Although this may reduce hauling efficiency, compared to cocollection, there are several advantages to our system: the ability to accurately measure food waste, to meet specific diversion targets; residents see the existing green cart as primarily for yard wastes, and secondarily for food wastes, which limits use for food waste; and, compost facilities like the clean food waste streams, which are easy to mix for the right C:N ratio.”

Most of Hennepin County’s organics are taken to SET, which is located in Empire. “SET took over the facility from Resource Recovery Technologies in October 2008, but we’ve actually been the operator this facility since 2000,” says Kevin Tritz of SET. Since the Governor signed into law a ban on the use of plastic bags for organics collection (effective January 1, 2010), feedstocks have been getting cleaner. “The food waste from programs in Hennepin County already has noticeably less contamination,” notes Tritz. “Our finished compost has subsequently improved, and is selling much better than before. Our average monthly throughput of SSO for January through October, 2009 was 439.31 tons, which is a combination of commercial and residential, since it mostly comes in on transfer trailers. This is an increase from 2008, when the average was 137.57 tons/month. This is primarily because the other locations where Hennepin County was sending its organics either closed or were shut down.”

One of the places that Hennepin had been sending organics to is the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum, a demonstration composting project in Carver County. Due to odors the facility closed this year, with plans to reopen at a different location at the arboretum. “The pilot project started in 2007 to demonstrate cocolleciton of food waste and yard trimmings, composted at a yard trimmings site,” says Marcus Zbinden, Environmental Specialist with Carver County. “However, it became overwhelmed with larger quantities of food waste, processing them in nonaerated static piles that reached 18 feet. The buffer was only about 250 feet, with houses across the road. Another development is that Waste Management, our original partner, has discontinued residential organics collection services.”