Hennepin County Community Recycling Opinion Survey

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Hennepin County Community Recycling Opinion Survey

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 behavioral 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. 

Minneapolis downtown skyline
Client
Hennepin County Environment and Energy
Location

Hennepin County, MN
United States

Markets
Subservices
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Strategic Communications