Minnesota has a growing trash problem

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Across Minnesota, we are inundated with packaging, from our doorsteps to store shelves. Packaging waste and printed paper now account for 40% of our waste stream. In the Twin Cities metro area alone, the amount of waste generated is projected to grow by 19% over the next two decades. The burden of managing this ever-growing deluge of packaging waste currently falls on local governments and taxpayers.

Our system is overwhelmed, underperforming, outdated and unjust. Minnesota deserves better, and our solution is HF 3577/SF 3561, the packaging waste and cost reduction act. This is a producer-funded system to reduce packaging and single-use plastic, make recycling easier and lower taxpayer costs for managing waste.

This bill isn’t a “nice to do.” It’s a must-do, and the time to act is now. Minnesota is at an inflection point: We have a strong foundation of recycling, yet a 2024 national report found that more than 65% of our cardboard, paper, bottles, cans and other recyclables still end up in Minnesota landfills and incinerators, or as plastic pollution in our environment. This lost waste forces counties to expand landfills across the state. In the metro area, landfills were recently permitted to expand to take in another 5.6 million tons of waste over the next 10 years, with nearly 4 million tons going to two sites in Burnsville and Inver Grove Heights.

We are facing mounting calls to act on this ever-growing trash problem: the inevitable closure of the Hennepin County Energy Recovery Center (HERC), pressures to expand landfills by an unceasing waste stream, a retrenchment of curbside recycling programs in cities like Virginia and Hibbing, and the countless risks that landfills present to our communities, including groundwater contamination and dangers like last year’s landfill fire in Rice County. All these factors threaten Minnesota’s historic leadership in dealing with solid waste, while also clarifying the need for bold action to address our trash problem.

Our bill will improve Minnesota’s recycling by building upon the existing system and combining it with new funding from producers of packaging and paper. This program would use sliding scale fees based on the sustainability of packaging to incentivize producers to reduce their packaging waste and ensure they are not using hard-to-recycle materials that burden our system. The program will protect and leverage public and private investments already made in Minnesota.

This is an environmental and economic solution. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates that Minnesotans throw away over $140 million in recyclable materials every year that could instead be used in local manufacturing to create new products. In fact, many of the major waste and recycling haulers serving Minnesota are already talking about the business opportunities presented by similar programs in Canada.

Opponents of this bill argue that it will increase consumer prices, but data from Canada and Europe proves this wrong. The impact of producer fees for packaging on consumer prices is minimal or nonexistent because packaging fees are only one minor factor affecting the market price of packaged goods. Further, Minnesotans already pay the price of expanding landfills, plastic pollution, increased asthma from incineration and more. This bill shifts those costs and requires producers to invest in solutions, rather than just continuing to pass these harms along.

We’ve worked for months with stakeholders across the solid waste community to build the right solution for Minnesota. While some manufacturers oppose any change, they have failed to propose solutions that move us forward. The fact is that an unwillingness to change is a vote for more landfills, more incineration, more plastic pollution, and more costs upon counties and taxpayers.

This bill is about far more than just waste. It’s part of our commitment to climate, to environmental justice, to reducing plastic pollution and to creating a cleaner, circular economy. We are responding to our residents, counties and environment. This is a well-developed, commonsense, comprehensive solution supported by a coalition of local governments, nonprofits, business groups, recyclers and residents. We need to move forward now so Minnesota can increase recycling, reduce plastic waste, mitigate climate pollution and create green jobs while saving money for households and local governments.

Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, is a member of the Minnesota House. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, is assistant majority leader in the Minnesota Senate.