Minneapolis environmental activists are demanding local officials speed up plans to close the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, threatening a hunger strike if several objectives aren’t met by Jan. 18.
And while local officials have set a loose timeline for shutting down the waste incinerator adjacent to Target Field, there’s no viable plan yet for the hundreds of thousands of tons of trash that it burns each year, meaning there’s little agreement about a specific date for its closure.
That’s frustrating for members of groups like the Zero Burn Coalition, who at a Dec. 18 north Minneapolis town hall raised health concerns as they voiced frustrations with local officials’ pace
“Making other people sick so some people’s trash goes away quickly is a form of human sacrifice,” one attendee said.
What is the HERC?
In 1984, officials considered two north Minneapolis locations for HERC, both along the banks of the Mississippi River. But neighbors weren’t having it, sending the county in 1989 to its current site, a former bus station near the North Loop. That site, according to a 2023 county staff report, was selected because “few people were living nearby.”
Fast forward nearly four decades and HERC is processing 365,000 tons of trash per year – the maximum allowed under state law – arriving via 200 trucks per day within spitting distance of one of Minneapolis’ trendiest neighborhoods.
After processing, the burning trash boils water to create steam, generating enough electricity to power 25,000 homes a year. Much of it is sold to Xcel Energy, while some of the steam is sent to a “district energy system” that heats and cools 100 buildings in the downtown area, including Target Field.
Minnesota Twins officials said in 2021 that 31 percent of Target Field’s waste was sent to the HERC as part of efforts that kept almost 99 percent of the facility’s waste out of traditional landfills – earning them the coveted “Green Glove.”
But that burning trash also emits pollutants like hydrogen chloride, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, albeit under the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s permitted levels.
Activists want more action
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners moved in October 2023 to develop a plan that would see the facility close sometime between 2028 and 2040, saying that time is needed to determine how to responsibly shut down the facility.
That plan lists no less than 12 major conditions that should occur before closing the HERC, including banning recyclables and organic materials from landfills, reducing plastic usage and mandating participation in recycling and composting programs.
Many of the points hinge on policies or bills that would need to be enacted by the state legislature, and the plan makes clear that implementation of things like banning items from landfills would take many years.
Related: Trash troubles: The pandemic started it; inflation keeps it going
Some of the goals have seen progress, like the passage of an extended producer responsibility bill that will require packaging and paper products sold or shipped into Minnesota to be refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2032.
But other efforts, like revising the city’s recycling ordinance, are stuck at the starting line.
By closing HERC before these things are in place, the plan states, “we risk increasing landfilling and going in the wrong direction for climate action.”
The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a resolution last year supporting the closure of the incinerator by 2028, and the closure of the full facility by 2034.
Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando has said the council, along with Mayor Jacob Frey, “must be actively leading on the future of the HERC because the City of Minneapolis has significant implications and unique responsibilities,” as 75 percent of the trash delivered to the HERC comes from Minneapolis residents and businesses.
And she has been very clear that any plan to close the HERC without a plan for where the trash goes is a non-starter.
“Such an action would increase landfilling, which is unsustainable and in contradiction with Hennepin goals, community goals, and the State of Minnesota’s waste hierarchy,” Fernando said.
A threatened hunger strike
That’s not acceptable for some members of groups like the Zero Burn Coalition.
“The commissioners are always saying that they are for responsible closure,” said Natasha Villanueva, one of several dozen people who attended the December town hall, hosted at Urban League Twin Cities. “And what they mean by that is more delays and us continually dying, breathing the HERC’s fumes.”
The ZBC said their primary concerns are the health impacts on the nearby population, which includes areas within a 3-mile radius concentrated with low-income households and people of color.
Asked about the concerns that a speedy closure of the HERC would divert large amounts of waste to landfills, Villanueva said that was a problem for local officials to solve, not the activists.
“We need to figure that out and fast, right?” Villanueva asked. “And dedicate funding to it instead of continuing to run this aging facility that’s poisoning us, right?”
Joe Hesla, another attendee, expressed frustration with what he called a “false narrative” that the trash issue was solely the fault of Minneapolis.
Villanueva and Hesla were some of the ZBC members who said they’d be going on a hunger strike if their demands to the Hennepin County Board — including an immediate vote on the closure process and the creation of a community task force — are not met by Jan. 18.
“It’s just a charade,” Hesla said. “So what do we do? Well, hunger strike is one thing, but we’re all going to escalate with other things too.”
At the moment, those plans include packing city council and county commission meetings and planning another rally on Jan. 19.
Zero waste will need ‘cultural change’
Michael Stoick is a Saint Paul-based zero waste and composting education specialist. He doesn’t believe HERC should close before figuring out how to reduce the city’s waste enough that other communities aren’t forced to deal with 365,000 tons of trash that will need to go elsewhere, likely into a landfill.
But he said he fully supports the mindset that sometimes a big change – like the closure of the HERC – requires political pressure.
Related: Could resource recovery parks help Hennepin County get to zero waste?
Beyond politics, Stoick said community buy-in is a must.
“There has to be a cultural change where we don’t treat our garbage as a place where things can go to disappear,” he said.
More composting is a good place to start, he said. In 2024, Minneapolis, which prides itself on being a green city, composted barely 5,200 tons of organic waste. And a 2019-2020 study commissioned by the MPCA showed that 62 percent of food thrown out by Minnesotans could have been eaten or donated.
“It’s gonna take the community to change the community,” Stoick said.
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