Gathering Public Feedback to Inform Long-Term Waste Management Planning

Every six years, Hennepin County, Minnesota’s most-populated county, completes a Solid Waste Management Plan to address how it will support the state-mandated goal of 75% recycling by 2030 for the Twin Cities metro area. In this update, the county wanted to integrate its ambitious Climate Action Plan, which envisions a zero-waste future to help achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

The county’s climate-action and zero-waste goals require a transformation of the county’s solid waste system to a circular economy that values raw materials and prioritizes reuse. Driving the needed change in policies, programming and infrastructure requires broad public support and advocacy for a zero-waste future.

Our solid waste, strategic communications, and social and behavioural sciences teams were brought on board to conduct a survey of residents to assess opinions on recycling programs and establish a baseline on level of support for needed policy actions for the most recent Solid Waste Management Plan, which covers 2024 to 2029. 

We designed the survey and partnered with a third-party polling company, which sampled 500 county residents by phone. Our team weighted the results to create a representative sample, then analyzed the data. 

The survey spanned several topics, from food waste disposal to waste reduction to drop-off facility use. Some key discoveries include: 

• Recycling drop-offs are used infrequently by residents, if at all. Lower income residents were more likely to say they never use drop-off locations compared to higher income residents.
• 80% of residents support requiring to-go containers to be recyclable or compostable.
• Participation in organics recycling differs across the county, and those who participate in curbside organics recycling generally have positive feelings about the program.
• 25% of residents report using backyard or on-site composting as their primary way to dispose of food waste.
• Most residents (77%) rarely or never used a drop-off location to recycle batteries.

These correlated with several strategies outlined in the plan, like:

• Expanding access for collection and drop-off options for hard-to-recycle items.
• Increasing participation in curbside organics recycling services and backyard composting.
• Reducing single-use plastics and plastic packaging.
• Encouraging retailers to increase consumer awareness of responsible end-of-life handling for products containing lithium-ion batteries.

The findings and strategies are helping guide Hennepin County on its journey toward zero waste and reducing carbon emissions by 45% of 2010 levels by 2030 and its 2050 goal.