City Council - 08/08/2017 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM
TUESDAY,AUGUST 8, 2017 CITY CENTER
5:00—6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS
6:30—7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER
CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, Council Members Brad Aho, Sherry Butcher
Wickstrom, Ron Case, and Kathy Nelson
CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Jim DeMann, Fire Chief George
Esbensen, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah,
Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Environmental Coordinator Leslie Stovring, City
Attorney Ric Rosow, and Recorder Jan Curielli
GUESTS: Dan Krivit, Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC, and members of the Conservation
Commission
Workshop - Heritage Room H
I. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Ellis introduced Leslie Stovring, Environmental Coordinator and manager of Eden Prairie's
solid waste master plan, and Dan Foth, Senior Project Manager at Foth Infrastructure &
Environment, a consultant for the plan. Ellis gave a PowerPoint presentation describing the
components of Eden Prairie's solid waste master plan.
Nelson asked if staff is talking with our waste haulers about all of them accepting the same
items for recycling because it is confusing for people when there are differences in what the
haulers will accept. Ellis replied the differences between haulers has to do with where the
materials are going to be sorted and the hauler's technology. Stovring noted the haulers must
accept certain base items,but may have variations above that base.
Ellis said solid waste management is one of the four pillars of the Sustainable Eden Prairie
program. There are two goals for solid waste management: to increase reuse and recycling of
materials, and to engage and educate the community about the importance of reducing, reusing
and recycling solid waste. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)has set a goal of
75% recycling for the Twin Cities area. MPCA and Hennepin County have provided strategies
to attain the goal, but individual communities can decide how they will reach the goal. He
reviewed the four options for recycled items: landfill, waste-to-energy, recycling and organics.
He gave some statistics showing progress made from 2010 to 2016 in reducing the use of
landfill and increasing the use of waste-to-energy, recycling and organics. He noted the goals
for 2030 are to have only 1% solid waste going to landfills, a 19% increase in waste burned to
produce energy, an increase of 60% recycling, and a 15% increase in organics collection.
Ellis said the 2016 waste sort study completed by Hennepin County showed management of
organics waste affords the best opportunity to improve. We have had made limited progress on
organics collection since 2010, and organics account for about 25% of our trash. Residents are
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August 8, 2017
Page 2
doing a good job of recycling paper and cardboard, but there are also opportunities to improve
in that area. We can also improve our drop-off options to provide opportunities to recycle
materials that are not accepted in curbside recycling programs.
Ellis said organics in landfills cause the problem of greenhouse gas. Improving the collection
of organics could save capacity at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERO) for materials
that produce more energy. Efficiencies could be made through better and higher use of
organics as compost or fertilizer and by converting organics to energy through the use of an
anaerobic digester.
Tyra-Lukens asked if it is possible to capture the greenhouse gas from the landfills. Ellis said
that process is not very efficient when compared to an anaerobic digester.
Ellis reviewed the strategies proposed by Hennepin County and the MPCA. He displayed a
map of Hennepin County highlighting cities that currently provide organics recycling and other
cities that will be required to provide curbside organic recycling by 2022. Aho asked if the
waste haulers are talking about providing that service. Ellis replied the haulers know this
requirement is coming, and he believed they will fine tune how they provide the service. In
2012-2014 a hauler in Eden Prairie tried to provide curbside organics collection,but that
service was suspended when they did not get the volume required. He noted responses to our
questions posed to residents on City Connect showed a lot of people in favor of the service, so
it would seem there is now more awareness of organics recycling. We do need to make it more
cost effective.
Aho asked what the haulers do with the organics collected. Mr. Krivit said there are two
organic transfer facilities, one in Rosemount and the other in Shakopee. Aho asked if the
facilities would be able to handle all the organic waste at this time if many more people were to
sign up for the collection. Mr. Krivit responded the transfer capacity is more the limiting
factor.
Ellis said another strategy from the County and the MPCA is to push for organized recycling
collection which would provide more control of the recycling program. He said they are also
discussing building an anaerobic digester that would be used to break down
biodegradable material. Additional strategies include requiring organics collection in certain
businesses and removing local barriers to commercial recycling such as design standards
regarding the aesthetics of storage enclosures.
Ellis reported the 2016 recycling study of 42 cities in Hennepin County showed Eden Prairie in
eighth place with 670 pounds of recycling per household for the year. For 2016, the County's
goal for Eden Prairie was 725 pounds per household per year.
Aho asked if haulers are required to weigh each load. Ellis said that was correct. The figures
provided are based on the best data we have, and the data is getting better.
Tyra-Lukens asked what the County is doing to promote packaging that would generate less
waste. Ellis replied the amount of newsprint has decreased, and packaging has changed to
make aluminum cans, plastic bags and packaging much thinner. He noted the numbers show
Eden Prairie has done a pretty good job of recycling, although there is room for improvement.
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August 8, 2017
Page 3
The amount of recycled material per household has dropped from 799 pounds per year in 2007
and 783 pounds per year in 2012. Stovring commented there is discussion about the effect on
solid waste from additional packaging generated by Amazon and other online businesses.
Ellis said there are several suggestions for improving residential recycling, such as having a
uniform collection schedule for all haulers. There might be 5% more recycling if there were a
uniform collection schedule. Nelson commented she often hears complaints about the size of
the recycling bins. Ellis said improvements in residential recycling could also be made by
providing weekly collection for both recycling and garbage, or weekly collection for recycling
and biweekly for garbage.
Ellis said a licensing requirement would be one of the options for organics collection.
Licensing would enable us to control the program because we could require organics collection
as part of obtaining a license. Collections could be made with the use of the blue bags for
organics in the existing garbage carts or with the use of a separate organics cart. We could also
provide a drop-off site, which could be used by multi-family units and commercial.
Ellis said staff could evaluate the cost and benefit of providing a yard waste drop-off site. We
could identify potential sites and provide recommendations as part of the solid waste
management plan.
Tyra-Lukens asked about the difference between organics and yard waste, for instance, how
would a lettuce leaf be different from a tree leaf. Mr. Krivit replied there is limited compost
pad space at the two transfer facilities, and there are State rules regarding the co-mingling of
organics and yard waste.
Ellis reviewed the evaluation of the 2017 clean-up day event, and noted 27 tons of material
were dropped off. Staff plans to look at accepting other items at the clean-up day event. He
said having a curbside clean-up day would probably cost about$250,000-$400,000 per year.
Tyra-Lukens asked about the cost of our current clean-up day. Stovring replied it is $30-
40,000.
Nelson said we have suggested doing the clean-up day twice a year. She thought people look at
that as a way to clean out items in the spring or fall. She noted Minneapolis allows residents to
put out certain large items every week. Ellis said some cities have issued violations for junked
items in the yard as an alternative to clean-up days.
Tyra-Lukens asked if we sell any of the materials collected at the clean-up day event. Stovring
replied the haulers do not charge us for the scrap metal collected. Tyra-Lukens noted years ago
some service organizations had a drive to encourage people to bring in scrap metal. It would be
useful to have information on alternative means of collection on the website. Nelson noted
there is a site in Bloomington that will take a lot of items.
Ellis said 18 months ago we started organics recycling here at City Hall, and we have had a 15-
18% reduction in the cost of our garbage service since starting that program. He noted our park
facilities have recycling receptacles in the parks;however, those need to be used properly
because we often see contaminated materials put into the recycling bins. We also try to make
sure we have recycling available at our City events.
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August 8, 2017
Page 4
Ellis said responses on City Connect showed that people would like to see organics collection.
As part of our education program, Ms Stovring attends various community events during the
year including the Chamber's Spring Expo, Arbor Day and the City Open House. The
Communications Department plans to provide education through the newsletter and social
media. One of the big issues that remains is confusion as to what can be recycled.
Butcher Wickstrom asked if a hauler will reject the entire batch if there is contamination of a
recycled item. Ellis replied they can reject the batch. He noted so much of recycling depends
on the education involved to give people information; for instance, shredded paper must be put
in paper bags for collection, and broken glass or broken ceramics cannot be recycled.
Ellis said the Conservation Commission will be discussing the solid waste plan at their meeting
tonight, and we plan to have a public open house on the subject of recycling. Internal staff
committee discussions are being held, and we have plans to reach out to the haulers. In
addition, we plan further discussions with Hennepin County and will continue this discussion
when the draft solid waste management plan is brought back to a future City Council meeting.
Butcher Wickstrom suggested we expand the hours of the drop-off event. Nelson suggested
providing two opportunities for drop-off during the year.
Aho commented education is key, and we need to have a strong plan on what items can and
cannot be recycled and the best methods to use. Our Communications staff is a good resource
for the education efforts.
Getschow said we have briefly discussed having organized waste collection. Other cities have
said they would not have gone to organized collection if they had a small number of haulers,
and Eden Prairie has a limited number of haulers. He noted we have not done organized
recycling collection, yet we have some of the highest participation rates in the metropolitan
area. He said the new Hennepin County requirements for organics may help in organics
collection.
Tyra-Lukens commented we need to understand our education efforts are about trying to
change people's behavior, and that can be very difficult. We need to get people to commit to
recycling waste materials. Aho commented we may need to have financial incentives.
II. OPEN PODIUM
III. ADJOURNMENT