I definitely encourage everyone to sign up and help reduce the amount of product that goes into our landfills.”

Mayor Myron Bailey

Currently, bags are provided and shipped for free to participants in the cooperating cities, in either 6 gallon or 13 gallon sizes, which can be ordered online by setting up an account at www.foodscrapspickup.com, or by calling (651)661-9393.

The Food Scraps Pickup pilot program that was put in place in select neighborhoods in Cottage Grove, Newport, North Saint Paul and Maplewood in the spring of 2023 is now being expanded to all residents in those communities. The program uses special green bags in which residents can put their food scraps, that are automatically separated by equipment at Washington & Ramsey County Recycling & Energy. The scraps are then composted. A percentage of that compost can also be used to create future energy for the community, using anaerobic digestion to turn it into biogas.

Participants don’t need to use a separate container to donate their food scraps; they can put their designated food scraps bags directly into their dumpster to be sorted later at the waste/recycling facility. The program touts having very little impact on waste management services and does not require a separate collection day, additional carts, or hauling trucks. Residents can also take their food scraps directly to drop-off sites in Ramsey and Washington counties if they prefer.

Currently, bags are provided and shipped for free to participants in the cooperating cities, in either 6 gallon or 13 gallon sizes, which can be ordered online by setting up an account at www.foodscrapspickup.com, or by calling (651)661-9393. A one-year supply of 60 bags, assuming approximately one bag per week, is supplied free of charge by mail from the dual-county program upon opening an account.

Washington County Commissioner Karla Bigham began the presentation to the council, saying, “As you know, for the last few months we’ve been in a pilot phase of just a specific area of our community; the communities of Newport, North Saint Paul and Maplewood. I’m here to say that every resident in Cottage Grove and the other three communities I’ve mentioned can now participate in this amazing program.” She thanked the staff that have been out promoting the pilot program over the last 7 months. “I think it’s really made a lot of difference,” she said. Bigham then turned over the presentation to Ramsey-Washington Food Scraps Recycling Program Supervisor Annalee Garletz.

“We thank Cottage Grove for letting us do the pilot,” she said. “We were able to gather a lot of information. There are a lot of moving parts for the program. We learned about customer service, worked with haulers, worked on ordering and delivery. We developed a website, and we worked with staff and vendors.”

Garletz continued, “All households should have received a postcard, and will soon start seeing geo-targeted ads letting them know that they’re eligible for the program and can sign up.” She noted that they’ve been presenting material about the program at recent local events, and that there is a live chat line and contact form available at the website, available in five different languages.

“As of September 29th, we have just under 5% of the population that is eligible in these communities signed up,” Garletz said. “We’re excited to see the participants rolling in each day. Food scraps make up about 20% of the waste that goes into the trash, so by participating in the program we’re keeping that amount out of the trash.”

Mayor Myron Bailey commented that he has had the opportunity to see the technology in action, and how impressive it was to see the machinery picking the specified green bags out of the inbound waste at the Newport recycling facility. “I definitely encourage everyone to sign up and help reduce the amount of product that goes into our landfills,” he said. “That’s ultimately what our goal is here, is better composting of this kind of product. I’ve had an opportunity to speak with our County Commissioner about what all of that means from the future standpoint if we can get more and more people to do this.”

Council member Tony Khambata said, “I remember the first time Commissioner Bigham came to discuss this project with us, and I’m glad it’s getting rolled out on a larger scale.”

Council member Dave Thiede suggested the bags and starter kits could also potentially be handed out during the annual Monster Bash Parade on October 29, which takes place at 10:00 a.m. on East Point Douglas Road South, to help raise awareness for the program.

Bailey concluded, “Thank you again for coming and sharing this with us. What I’ll ask from the future standpoint, somewhere down the road, is to work with our staff to come to give us an update at some point to let us know the successes you’re having, percentages, things like that, so that we can continue to push this out into the community for the betterment of everyone.”