Hennepin County's Organics Recycling Facility Gets a $43 Million Boost
“Admittedly, when you say anaerobic digester, the average person doesn’t know what that means,” says Ben Knudson, a recycling specialist with Hennepin County who has long advocated for the pricey composting tank that converts banana peels into fuel and fertilizer.
After 15 years with the county, Knudson has sifted through the local trash enough to know that 30% of it is food scraps and other organic material that could’ve been composted. Starting this year, Hennepin hopes to repurpose that waste with a new ordinance requiring larger cities to offer curbside organics recycling services to residents, and smaller cities to designate a drop-off site for food waste.