Richfield, MN

You should contact your hauler and report a missed pick-up:

• • Waste Management (email: wmeservice@wm.com, phone: 952-890-1100)
  • Republic (email: CSTwincities@republicservices.com, phone: 952-941-5174)
  • Aspen (email: mncustomerservice@aspenwaste.com, phone: 612-884-8008)

You can also reach out to garbageandrecycling@richfieldmn.gov to report a missed pick-up and staff will help rectify the situation.

Only pizza boxes and egg cartons can go in the cart without being bagged. You can use BPI certified compostable bags, in addition to regular brown paper bags to collect your organics waste. Accepted certified brands include Bag to Nature, BioBag, EcoSafe, and any others that have the BPI certified logo. You can find these bags online or in stores such as Cub, Home Depot, Lakewinds, Menards, Target, and multiple ACE Hardware Stores.

Your housing association can work directly with your current waste hauler to offer this service.

Currently, Richfield’s organized organics collection program is only designated for residential homes, meaning 1-3 units. If you live in an apartment or condominium, however, you may collect and bring your organics to one of the two organics drop-off sites:

• • Wood Lake Nature Center, 6710 Lake Shore Dr. South: The dumpster is located near the southeast end of the main parking lot.
  • House of Prayer Church, 7625 Chicago Ave: The dumpster is located in the back parking lot off of Elliot Ave.

There are a few solutions you could try: 1) Replace your yard waste cart with lawn and leaf bags. 2) Store your cans outside. This is allowable per City Code.

The organics from curbside collection will be sent to the SMSC Organics Recycling Facility in Shakopee. The organics collected at the two drop-off sites is brought to SET- Empire in Rosemount. There they will be recycled into compost, a nutrient-rich material that is used in landscaping and road construction projects to improve our soil.

At the composting facility, the piles of materials which are broken down into compost are temperature monitored. The piles are kept above 131-160 degrees for weeks straight. Jumping worms die between 85-104 degrees for 3 consecutive days. We have chosen to partner with a reputable industrial composting facility and jumping worms have not been an issue in their products.  

One suggestion which has worked well in other cities has been to line the organics cart with a lawn and leaf bag. Then deposit the bagged organics into the lawn and leaf bag, and close that inside the cart. This works especially well if the green compostable bags are used in conjunction with the lawn and leaf bags. The idea is to create a physical barrier between the material and the flies.

From the City of Minneapolis website: “Maggots are a common, naturally occurring problem with many organics recycling programs. Even if you didn’t see them, maggots were commonly found in garbage carts before the City implemented the organics recycling program. Maggots are fly larvae and occur when flies lay eggs on organic materials.  Maggots are more common in warmer temperatures.  To prevent maggots inside your organics recycling cart, you must prevent mature flies from laying eggs on your food scraps by eliminating odors and reducing their access to organic materials. A physical barrier works best."

If you find them in your cart, try leaving the lid open for a couple of hours. Maggots will crawl to the top of the cart and often be eaten by birds.

Plastic bags are not compostable and are a contaminant. Bags labeled BPI-certified compostable that meet ASTM D6400 standards must be used to collect organics. When you bag items they must be put in a certified compostable bag. Accepted brands include Bag to Nature, BioBag, EcoSafe, and any others that have the BPI certified logo. You can find these bags online or in stores such as Home Depot, Lakewinds, Menards, and Target.

Occasionally, the city provides free kitchen pails at community events. We encourage residents to get creative and use containers you already have, such as a coffee can or an ice cream pail. Otherwise, you can purchase a bin online or check at local stores.

All organic material must be put in compostable bags and placed in the organics cart for efficient collection.

Putting food scraps down the garbage disposal places extra processing burdens on wastewater treatment facilities. It takes energy and resources to process solids, including food waste, at wastewater treatment plants. Composting food scraps through the organics program or backyard composting is a better option as finished compost puts valuable nutrients back into the soil.

You can find information about purchasing compost, compost blends, mulch, and other material on the SMSC website, smscorf.com.

We are currently working on bringing back finished compost to residents in the future.

Remember that with organics, you're simply moving the organic materials from your garbage cart into your organics cart.

There is a chance your container may have a scent but most residents do not report this. There are steps you can take to reduce any smell. Drain any excess liquids before putting waste in your container. Keep food scraps in a separate container in the fridge or freezer, and then put them in a compostable bag and combine them with the rest of the organics material before you put your cart out for collection.

In terms of organics recycling, compostable items are materials which will break down at the commercial composting facility. Biodegradable items may also be compostable, but some of these items take hundreds of years to break down and therefore we do not want them in the curbside organics carts.

Because there is little regulation on the terms biodegradable and compostable, it is important to be careful on what is going into your organics cart. When composting non-food items, look for BPI Certification. It ensures that an item is safely compostable and can be sent to a commercial composting facility.