Hennepin County says Minneapolis needs its own trash plan before the HERC can close

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Hennepin County leaders say Minneapolis needs to develop a plan to dispose of its trash before the county can commit to closing a controversial trash incinerator. 

Irene Fernando, chair of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, told the Minneapolis City Council in August that the county can’t move forward with plans to shutter the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) until the city knows where its trash would go if the incinerator closes. Environmental justice advocates campaigning to close the HERC believe the county is trying to pass the burden of closing its facility onto others. 

Mounting pressure from the public and state lawmakers prompted the commissioners to ask county staff last year to develop a plan to close the HERC sometime between 2028 and 2040.

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The HERC, a waste-to-energy incinerator located near Target Field in downtown Minneapolis, burns about 45% of the trash generated in Hennepin County. Around 75% of trash burned at the HERC comes from Minneapolis residents and businesses, Fernando told City Council members at an Aug. 22 committee meeting.

“I am not seeing momentum from Minneapolis policy makers,” Fernando told Sahan Journal after the meeting.

The county built and owns the HERC, but Minnesota legislators and Minneapolis elected officials have long criticized the facility as a source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. 

County staff in January presented commissioners with a report on strategies they believe must be achieved before closing the HERC, including the passage of several new state laws on packaging and waste management.

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But progress has slowed since then. Commissioners have taken no further steps to declare when they will close the incinerator in the 12-year window, leaving many activists who are campaigning to shut down the facility feeling disillusioned.

“The county has significantly backtracked from its resolution,” said Nazir Khan of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table.

The HERC is one of the largest sources of air pollution in Hennepin County, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. Environmental justice advocates argue that its location on the north edge of downtown Minneapolis disproportionately harms residents of color who live nearby in north Minneapolis. 

County commissioners say they are bound by the state’s waste hierarchy, which prioritizes the use of incinerators over landfills. Landfills are sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and are politically difficult to build. There are no landfills in Hennepin County today, and the HERC is the county’s only end-of-life facility for garbage, Fernando said.

“There is urgent action needed from cities, and there is a role for counties, which is why we are eager to be here to further strengthen our partnership between our jurisdictions in order to accelerate zero waste strategies and, ideally, to conclude burning trash at the HERC in the soonest possible responsible timeframe,” Fernando told city council members in August. 

Minneapolis City Council Members expressed a willingness to do their part to close the facility, but some questioned the county’s timeline. Council Member Jamal Osman asked if the county had failed to meet its resolution by not yet committing to a shutdown date. 

“Our residents are here saying HERC should be closed, and we should give them a concrete timeline,” Jamal said.  

‘A long way to go’

Fernando said the county is sticking with its broad range because more actions from cities and the state are needed. 

The Legislature in May passed an extended producer responsibility law that will require packaging in the state to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2032. The bill’s author, Representative Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, said she was inspired to champion the bill to assist in closing the HERC. 

But more state laws, like prohibiting plastic bags and banning recyclable and compostable materials from landfills, are needed, county commissioners and officials say. Recycling rates are stagnant in the Twin Cities, according to Lisa Cerney, assistant county administrator for public works.

The county is recycling or composting about 43% of its waste today, well behind the goal of 75% by 2030. Organic food waste makes up about 50% of trash in the county, Cerney said. Big improvements are needed in the commercial sector and at multifamily housing buildings. 

“There’s a long way to go,” Cerney said. 

Minneapolis adopted a goal to divert 80% of its waste to recycling and composting by 2030, and passed its own zero-waste plan in 2017. The city has a robust program to recycle organic waste from single-family homes and multifamily buildings with four or fewer units. Only six apartment and nine condominium buildings in Minneapolis have organics recycling, which is similar to composting, according to Minneapolis Recycling Coordinator Kellie Kish.

A 2022 residential trash audit found that the city needs to make progress in diverting its overall waste. Only about one-third of the contents in an average trash can need to be in the garbage, Kish said. 

“We need policy change, we need programming and we need manufacturing to change,” Kish said. 

County leaders say that progress must be accomplished before the HERC can close. Critics say setting a deadline for its closure is key to ensuring progress on the matter. 

If the HERC closed tomorrow, Fernando said, “The primary consequence would be to residents, because trash would likely pile up and not have a place to go.” 

Editor’s note: This story was written by Sahan Journal reporter Andrew Hazzard, who focuses on climate change and environmental justice issues.