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  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Work
    • Community Solar and Environmental Justice
    • Community Solar Engagement and Info Sessions
    • Zero Waste
    • Daryeel Cimilada (Care for Climate)
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Join a Committee
    • Join our Board of Directors
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Community Solar FAQs
    • Organics Recycling
    • Zero Waste
    • Community Solar DOE Documents
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

Zero Waste Resources

                                             ZERO WASTE
To address the linked issues of waste, consumerism, plastic pollution, environmental justice, human rights and climate change, we need to join forces and raise our voices. We need to hold ourselves, our government, and corporations accountable.

According to the EPA, 
“42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the energy used to produce, process, transport, and dispose of the food we eat and the goods we use. This includes the extraction or harvest of materials and food, production and transport of goods, provision of services, reuse of materials, recycling, composting, and disposal.

In addition, the production and disposal of single use plastics puts a disproportionate health burden on low income and communities of color here and abroad. Zero waste is an environmental justice issue.

​
Minneapolis Climate Action's Zero Waste Guide 2020
This guide is a start for activists, citizens, and organizations to share and use as a resource for individual, corporate and government action on zero waste. The info is also below.

Join our Zero Waste Mpls Facebook Page and Facebook Group


Picture
888 straws pulled from Lake Hiawatha in South Minneapolis on 4/20/2019
Click here to see the full report about the trash pulled from Lake Hiawatha [Anthropocenic Midden Survey: Lake Hiawatha Trash Survey]

Zero Waste Resources, Information & Policy

EUREKA RECYCLING
  • Eureka Recycling is a nonprofit zero waste organization and social enterprise recycler based in Minneapolis and sorts Minneapolis residential recycling at their Material Recovery Facility (MRF)
  • What Can I Recycle? - Eureka’s App
  • Eureka Recycling: The Problem with Plastic Webinar 5/1/2020
  • The Problem with Plastic webinar - 5/1/2020 - Youtube
  • The Problem with Plastic webinar - 5/1/2020 - Google doc

CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS RESOURCES
  • Sign up to receive Recycling Reminder emails from the City
  • City of Minneapolis What to Do List
    ​
HENNEPIN COUNTY RESOURCES
  • Green Disposal Guide - A to Z guide information on the best way to recycle, reuse or dispose of items from your home
  • Choose to Reuse - reuse tips, tool and events
  • Become a Master Recycler/Composter
  • Hennepin County Green Partners Newsletter Sign Up:
  • Green Partners Environmental Education Program
  • Hennepin County Green Partners Grants for environmental education and organics recycling
  • Green Partners Environmental Education Program
  • Join the Circle Program: When you buy new, the price tag doesn't reflect all the resources needed to produce, package, transport and eventually dispose of your purchases. So buy used, then sell or donate later for reuse. Not only will you save money, you'll help save the planet.
  • Hennepin County Zero Waste Guide
  • Participate in the Hennepin County Zero Waste Challenge
  • ​Resources for hosting a Green Event

ZERO WASTE FACEBOOK PAGES AND GROUPS
  • Zero Waste Minneapolis Facebook Page 
  • Zero Waste Minneapolis Facebook Connection Group
  • TrashTalk MN
  • Zero Waste Saint Paul - Connection Group Public Group
  • Zero Waste West Metro Facebook Group
  • Rusty & the Crew Facebook Page - Hire Rusty & the Crew for your recycling or waste reduction event!
  • Rethink Tailoring - local business that reduces textile waste and saves money by altering/upcycling garments 1 year or older, and by repairing clothing of all ages. 
  • Buy Nothing Facebook Groups - search for Buy Nothing Groups in your neighborhood to “give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of micro-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors.”

REDUCING WASTED FOOD
Save the Food: a great resource for reducing wasted food with meal planning, food storage, recipes for food scraps, and more

ORGANICS RECYCLING RESOURCES 
from City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County


  • Organics Recycling (find videos and translated versions of sign up brochure, organics guide and home setup tips here)
  • Getting Started Guide: Tips for set up, managing common issues and accepted organics list
  • Detailed Yes or No List for Items Accepted in Organics Recycling
  • Home Set up Tips
  • Indoor Collection Tips
  • Outdoor Collection Tips
  • Bagging Your Organics Dos and Don’ts
  • Organics Drop off Sites - for those who live in fourplexes or bigger and can’t sign up for curbside organics
  • BPI Site to determine if a food container or utensil is compostable

LOCAL COMMITTEES and ACTION GROUPS
  • Join Minneapolis Climate Action Zero Waste Committee
  • COPALMN - Communities Organizing Latinx Power and Action
  • Rusty and the Crew  Recycling Rap video and Resources for recycling and reducing waste from Off the Blue Couch and Rusty and the Crew

INFO and RESOURCES
  • Oil and Gas Threat Map
  • Sean Connaughty’s Lake Hiawatha Trash Survey 2019
  • Dr. MAX LIBOIRON on Reorienting Within a World of Plastic - great podcast from For the Wild: Dr. Max Liboiron runs a feminist, anti colonial research lab focused on marine plastic pollution. “Acknowledging our entangled relationship with plastics calls for a more nuanced discussion on waste through the prisms of colonialism, disposability, and knowledge production. What does the history of plastic production and the sanitation movement tell us about the design of modern waste regimes? How can we bring accountability into the scientific study of plastic and honor ecological relationality in the lab? How does the landscape of pollution—and attendant clean-up “solutions”—reproduce colonial dynamics?” 

LEGISLATION and POLICY
Federal:
  • Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 - a comprehensive federal bill that includes language to hold producers accountable; phase out certain single use products; increase required recycled content; puts a moratorium on new plastics manufacture facilities; creates standardized recycling labeling system.
  • Zero Waste Act - Federal grant program to help local cities to invest in zero waste initiatives.  Funds can go towards recycling infrastructure, or towards the creation of partnerships with local businesses aimed at reducing waste in their operations. The Zero Waste Act will create jobs, grow domestic manufacturing, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean waterways, protect our communities from health hazards, save energy, and further grow our economy.
  • Extended Producer Responsibility Bill

State
  • Three bills that will be re-introduced in the 2021 Minnesota legislative session - sponsored by MN State Rep. Frank Hornstein: 
  • California Senate Bill 54 that passed: California Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act - Executive producer of The Story of Plastic,  Stiv Wilson, advocated for passage of this bill

City of Minneapolis
  • City of Minneapolis Zero Waste Plan + details
  • City of Minneapolis 2020-2022 MPLS Zero Waste Action Plan: 
  • ​Climate action step: read the Zero Waste Action Plan and email your comments and improvements to zerowaste@minneapolismn.gov. Feedback matters!

PLASTICS LOBBYIST INFO
Ameripen:This major lobbyist group represents large corporations like 3M, General Mills, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. 


DONATE TO ORGANIZATIONS ON THE FRONTLINES OF ZERO WASTE:
  • Eureka Recycling
  • Minneapolis Climate Action
  • MN Renewable Now
  • COPALMN
  • GAIA - At GAIA, we see waste and its resulting pollution as a symptom of a larger, profit-driven extractive economy, and we promote zero waste as a holistic solution and an economic shift toward justice and sustainability.

ZERO WASTE BUSINESSES and INITIATIVES
  • Tare Market 
  • Forever Ware - multi-use food packaging offered at local grocery stores and restaurants
  • Rethink Tailoring
  • Repair Lair
  • Litterless.com

EVENTS
Past events:
July 30, 2020

7:00pm - 8:30pm
Talking Trash with Neighbors - Zoom Meeting

Talking Trash with Neighbors - Slide Presentation

May 8, 2020
6:45pm - 9:30pm via Zoom
The Story of Plastic BIPOC Viewing Party and Discussion

June 1, 2020
6:30pm - 9:00pm via Zoom
Zero Waste Action Movement Kick-off 






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