Minneapolis Residents are Recycling Less Organics Than Expected

Minneapolis residents eagerly participated in the first year of the city’s new organics recycling program — the largest of its kind in the metro — but so far they’re tossing less than anticipated in the green curbside bins.

More than 45,000 households have signed up for the program since it expanded to the entire city last July, or 43 percent of the eligible single-family homes and small apartment buildings. The city had expected 40 percent of eligible households to participate.

Those residents sent nearly 4,000 tons of organic matter to be converted to compost at a Rosemount facility, rather than incinerated with other trash. But that’s about half what the city expected when it launched the program a year ago, based on a consultant’s projections.