Dive Brief:
- Officials in Minneapolis, MN, announced that curbside organics pick-up will be available to 25% of customers in the city by August.
- The service will be open to all households citywide beginning in the spring of 2016.
- Residents must sign up for the collection to participate.
Dive Insight:
The new service will accept all food scraps, including bones, meat, dairy and things like tea bags. Chop sticks, lint from the dryer and hair are all now considered potential candidates for the recycling bin. Pizza boxes and wax paper with residue are considered acceptable for recycling. Items that cannot be recycled include paper materials with a plastic lining.
The city has been pushing efforts to become a "Zero Waste City." Officials are attempting to implement programs that will help reduce waste and increase the recycling rate citywide. The city also introduced single-stream recycling, which led to an increase in its recycling rate.