Wait until 2040 to close trash incinerator? Hennepin County leaders, activists want shorter timeline

Environmental justice advocates and Hennepin County commissioners were frustrated Thursday by a report and recommendation from county staff that said it was best to wait until 2040 to close the facility that incinerates nearly half of residents' trash.

Activists have been fighting for years to close the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, or HERC, because of the adverse health effects emissions have on nearby communities. Commissioners largely agree it needs to be shut down, but they acknowledge a quick timeline will be difficult — even with the promise of state funds for a more environmentally friendly way of dealing with waste.

"It's mind-boggling," Commissioner Angela Conley said of the 2040 closure proposal. She noted that county leaders agree the HERC contributes to the institutionalized racism harming the health of residents living near the incinerator.

"I'm not seeing the urgency," she said.

Nazir Khan, an organizer with Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, agreed. "That's ridiculous," he said, noting the new 55-page report gave no firm timeline for closing the garbage incinerator. "If there's no deadline, they're not going to act."

The HERC has been incinerating garbage in the North Loop since 1989. Located next to Target Field, it is one of the county's biggest sources of several air pollutants that environmental and social justice advocates say contributes to high rates of asthma and other health problems in nearby neighborhoods, including north Minneapolis.

In contrast, the new county report says the HERC's emissions are well below allowable levels. It says trucking the trash elsewhere to sit in landfills will create more greenhouse gas-causing emissions.

The easiest answer is to create a lot less waste, but right now, Hennepin County is doing the opposite of that. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates by 2042 the garbage generated by county residents and businesses will grow by nearly 20%.

In 2022, Hennepin County created about 1.27 million tons of waste. Only about 41% of it was recycled or composted, leaving nearly 800,000 tons of garbage that needed disposal.

"We just can't put it somewhere else and say we've done our job. Where the garbage goes needs to be answered," said Commissioner Kevin Anderson. "The way you close it is there's no waste stream to feed it and there is no waste going into the ground."

Dramatically reducing waste is not something Hennepin County can do alone. County Board Chair Irene Fernando said she has long advocated for closing the incinerator, but doing so will take policy changes by state and local leaders to reduce the amount of waste residents and businesses create.

The Minnesota Legislature gave Hennepin County a big nudge toward closing the HERC during the past legislative session. The state's new carbon-free electricity by 2040 plan eliminates trash burning as an acceptable energy source.

County leaders may need to do more to satisfy that legislative requirement to get the infrastructure money. Commissioners are weighing whether to create a task force to develop a detailed timeline for decommissioning the HERC, but it needs to be done quickly.