Zero Waste Funding Study

At a glance

Based on human-uploaded captions that may contain errors.

What: Solid Waste and Recycling's response to a council legislative directive asking how to fund zero-waste work and how fast it could be implemented. Staff said the only mechanism studied that also provides data and oversight is organized commercial collection (franchise fee or bid model, collection zones).
Where it stands: received and filed. Staff said no funding source can shorten the roughly 107-month (9.5-year) legal and procedural timeline; the clean communities fee was ruled out without state enabling legislation.
Next: hiring a zero waste program manager (posting closed October 23, funded with Climate Legacy Initiative money), a state pollution control grant application due the day before Thanksgiving (notice expected May or June 2027), and several staff follow-up memos.

Staff said commercial waste is about half of what reaches the HERC incinerator, the City's residential waste about 23%, and the rest comes from outside Minneapolis. Skipping the HERC contract in 2027 would have cost the City about 5.4 million dollars more, staff said.
The enterprise fund cannot pay for commercial work, so staff have not pursued commercial diversion. The County SCORE grant brings in about 1.5 to 1.6 million dollars a year.
Proposed 2027 cuts to zero-waste items (education campaign, community grants, consultant) were attributed to paying for the new manager position.
Wonsley said the City is not on track to leave the HERC by December 2027 as promised in a 2024 resolution, and had a sharp exchange with the Public Works director, who said staff time on two legislative directives was substantial. Staff rated progress toward zero-waste goals as red.
Palmisano and Stevenson suggested marketing city collection to small commercial buildings and schools, including hybrid service (private hauler plus city organics); Chowdhury urged pressing the state legislative agenda.
Staff follow-ups requested include which department the mayor assigned after the 2024 resolution, why the two work groups cannot merge, whether Climate Legacy money was ever considered, a plan before the December 2027 deadline, and stadium and convention center waste data.

2026-10-22 - Climate & Infrastructure Committee - Presentation and long questioning; received and filed with several follow-ups. See also HERC Waste Disposal Contract.

Marked agenda: report received and filed.