Northfield Compost Program Expands to Include Organics

Most folks who keep a compost pile at home know the rules: No bones, no meat, no dairy, no paper plates or napkins unless you want to attract rats and other unpleasant critters. Those rules won't apply when the City of Northfield embarks on a new organics-recycling program at the city’s compost site near this spring.

Beginning April 10, when the compost site opens for the season, residents will be able to bring food scraps, including dairy and meat, as well as non-recyclable paper, such as napkins and paper plates, to the compost site for recycling. Residents must use special recycling bags, available at , and place their food waste into a lockable bin at the compost site. The city’s garbage hauler, , will then take the bin to a commercial composting facility near Rosemount where it will be turned into compost for gardens.

Reducing solid waste

Adding organics recycling to the city’s services has long been a goal of the Northfield Environmental Quality Commission and the city’s Public Works staff, said Barb Thompson, administrative assistant at Public Works.

“We’ve had the public ask about it,” she said. “For the last six months or so, we’ve tried to figure out how to make it happen and now it is.”

The main goal of organics recycling is to reduce the amount of waste the city sends to the Rice County Landfill, which is south of Northfield on Highway 3. The as well as already compost . The school district estimated this fall that composting school lunch waste prevented 8 tons of waste from going to the landfill each month.

Most families will see a 25 percent reduction in their garbage when they begin composting organics, said Susannah Shmurak, a member of the Northfield Environmental Quality Commission.

"The EQC is thrilled that Northfield residents now have this option," Shmurak said in an email to Patch. "Not only are we keeping all those possible nutrients available for reuse (saving on energy-intensive production of fertilizer), but the waste is also not breaking down anaerobically at the landfill, where it produces methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide."

How organics recycling works

A combination of large piles and high internal temperatures allows commercial composters to turn food waste into useable compost, said Anne Ludvik, director of organics development for Specialized Environmental Technologies (SET), Inc./The Mulch Store, the Eden Prairie-based company that will process Northfield’s waste.

From the local compost site, Waste Management will haul Northfield’s organics to SET’s processing plant in Empire Township. The nitrogen-rich food waste will be mixed with carbon-rich yard waste, such as dried leaves, and piled outside. Aeration tubes run through the piles to ensure that enough oxygen is present to guarantee decomposition without smell, Ludvik said. (A lack of air is why some home compost piles stink.) SET workers turn each pile several times to keep the air flowing and to maintain internal temperatures of more than 131 degrees Fahrenheit, Ludvik said, which is necessary to kill bacteria.

“Because of the heat and because the piles are so big, we can take things you cannot compost at home such as meat, bone, dairy and non-recyclable paper, ” Ludvik said.

In six to nine months, the waste will be reduced to half of its previous volume and will be rich compost. The finished compost will be tested for heavy metals, PCBs, bacteria and other potential contaminants. If all is well, it will be sold as compost or blended with sand for a special rain garden mix that SET sells, she said. SET sells the compost to the State of Minnesota, landscapers and home gardeners.

Getting the Public On Board

Before the program begins, SET and Waste Management will provide information to the public about what can be recycled (see attached list) and how to bring organics to the compost site. Organics recycling is voluntary and organics will not be picked up as a separate part of trash collection. They must be brought to the site.

Information about organics recycling will be available at and Healthy Kids Day as well as through the city, said Thompson. So far, Just Food is the only seller of the approved food-waste recycling bags, she added.

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