A mound of trash sits inside the Recycling and Energy Center in Newport and for too long, food waste there ends up in the landfill. 

“We do know that approximately 20% of all wastes that people throw away in their households is food scraps,” said Annalee Garletz, Food Scraps Pickup Program Supervisor. 

Ramsey and Washington counties are pioneering a food scraps pickup program that uses artificial intelligence. Residents living in Cottage Grove, Maplewood, North St. Paul and Newport can sign up to receive food scrap bags.  

Once the bags are full of food waste, they’re tied and thrown in the dumpster along with regular garbage. The trash is collected and brought to the Recycling and Energy Center in Newport, where robots sort out the biodegradable green compost bags from regular garbage by its color and shape. 

“Each robot has the potential to pick up 30 bags per minute. On an annual basis, that’ll be around 30,000 tons of food scraps,” explained Sam Holl, the facility manager.

“The thickness is unique to us because we design the bags to handle the weight that we anticipate right around eight pounds per bag average, but then also to be able to survive the co-collection model of being thrown in your trash bin, and then being picked up by the hauler and being dropped on our tipping floor then picked up with our front end loader and then going through the process being grabbed by the robot,” said Holl. 

The robots have a 94% accuracy as far as picking the right material. If other items are grabbed, the robot is trained not to repeat the mistake. 

To get a free compostable bag, you’ll need to sign up online. Right now, only those who live in Cottage Grove, Maplewood, North St. Paul and Newport are eligible, however, other communities in Ramsey and Washington counties will be able to take part in the next few years. 

Unlike other organic recycling programs, extra bins and trucks are not required on the roads.

“We just signed a contract with an equipment provider to build an anaerobic digestion facility to make renewable natural gas from the food scrap bags,” Holl said. 

The anaerobic digestion facility won’t be completed and operational until 2027 but for now, food scraps are being turned into compost and sold off to communities for use.

“In essence, we want to reduce, reuse, recycle. So, this program, the food scraps recycling program, is allowing us to recycle more materials,” said Holl.

The intent of the program is to help Ramsey and Washington counties meet the state’s recycling goal of 75% by 2030. 

Last year, the R&E Center processed 393,165 tons of trash, recovered 12,044 tons of metal for recycling and produced enough fuel to power 13,000 homes for a year. The facility also reduced CO2 emissions by 97,000 metric tons, which is equivalent to taking nearly 21,000 cars off the road for a year.