Community Corner

Dakota County Looking to Lighten Landfills by Diverting More Organic Waste

The county is taking ideas of how best to reduce the amount of organic waste that ends up in landfills.

Dakota County is hoping to decrease its use of landfills by finding more uses for the county's organic waste.

Currently about three percent of the county's waste is classified as "organic"— a category that encompasses everything from bones to flowers—and can be diverted from landfills and recycled.

The county is hoping to raise the amount of waste that's separated out as organic, aiming to reach figures of 4 to 5 percent by 2017 and 9 to 15 percent by 2030.

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Dakota County is soliciting ideas now about how to achieve those goals from several types of groups and businesses:

  • Commercial or institutional food service or food waste generators
  • Not-for-profit organizations involved in food recovery or waste reduction
  • Local units of government
  • Licensed waste haulers
  • Licensed waste facility owners or operators

On its website, Dakota County provides examples of the types of projects that might help increase organic diversion:

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  • Pilot a residential organics collection project providing comprehensive education and infrastructure (e.g., indoor kitchen pails, compostable or blue bags, collection carts);
  • Pilot a non-residential organics collection project providing comprehensive education and infrastructure;
  • Create a small-scale commercial organics generator program in Dakota County (e.g., collection services, staff training, waste assessment & bin inventory, data analysis, container right-sizing);
  • Create a medium-scale commercial organics generator program in Dakota County (e.g., collection services, incentive funding, and technical assistance);
  • Establish a community organics drop-site collection program at local Dakota County businesses and/or non-profit entities to increase onsite organics diversion and to engage the community;
  • Increase local organics storage and collection capacity to reduce transportation costs;
  • Create an organics program for Dakota County facilities (e.g., Parks, Service Centers), including vendor protocols for indoor/outdoor events; or
  • Other ideas that further reduce landfill disposal of organics through food-to-people, food-to-animals, and composting initiatives


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