Education

Compost

28% of household trash is food scraps, like fruit peels, eggshells, coffee grounds and more. That’s about 14 pounds of food scraps per household per week.

To help reduce this waste, the counties provide two options for residents to participate in food scrap recycling:

When you recycle food scraps, they are sent to a compost facility to be processed. Composting is the natural process of breaking down organic materials – like food scraps and yard waste – into nutrient-rich material called compost that can be used to improve our soil.

Recovering food scraps from trash helps us reach Minnesota’s recycling goals and provides health, environmental and economic benefits to the community.

Here’s how food scraps recycling works*:

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*This process depicts participating in the Food Scraps Pickup Program. Food scraps collected at drop-off sites are delivered directly to compost facilities.

How can compost be used?

Finished compost material can be used at home in gardens, lawn care and potted plants, or in industries such as agriculture, construction, landscaping and environmental management. 

Construction

Landscaping

Agriculture

Benefits of food scrap recycling + compost:

Recycling food scraps provides the best opportunity to reduce the amount of trash we generate. By weight, food scraps are the largest portion of our trash. Recycling food scraps keeps this material out of landfills and incinerators.

When food scraps and other organic materials break down in landfills, they create methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Composting food scraps instead produces significantly less methane.

Additionally, because food scraps are wet, they require more energy to burn at waste-to-energy facilities than other types of waste. Reducing the amount of food scraps sent to incinerators conserves energy and improves the efficiency of waste processing.

Compost added to soil promotes healthier plant growth and reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. It also improves water retention, which conserves water and helps prevent erosion.

Minnesota’s composting industry supports about 700 jobs and produces $148 million in gross economic activity per year. The composting industry supports four to eight times more jobs on a per ton basis than landfilling operations.

Resources and further reading: