BY REBEKAH ELLIS
MURPHY NEWS SERVICE
The Edina Cinema began using new 100 percent biodegradable popcorn bags last year, but Manager Jed Schlegelmilch said he felt weird when customers asked how the bags were disposed of because they still just ended up in the trash.
Realizing that starting a new disposal system would be difficult to do alone, Schlegelmilch called Salut Bar Americain’s Manager Zach Saueressig.
Saueressig was immediately on board, and an organic recycling program began to take shape at 50th and France.
“It was a no-brainer. This is the right way to do business,” Saueressig said.
The Edina Cinema, Edina Grill, Salut Bar Americain and Cocina Del Barrio are now participating in an organic recycling program through the 50th and France Business Association.
50th and France received a $10,000 grant from Hennepin County in January to fund containers and other equipment for organic recycling. International Dairy Queen in Edina was also one of the 11 county grant recipients in January, and used the grant to add organic recycling at its research and development lab and employee areas.
50th and France is the first business district to receive an organic recycling grant from Hennepin County.
“To be able to take an association or a retail environment and educate them on a program like this is really new,” said David Domack from Dick’s Sanitation.
Now, those popcorn bags, as well as other biodegradable garbage like coffee cups, to-go containers, candy boxes and Salut’s paper tablecloths, are recycled into compost.
“This is the best for the area and community at large as we are not filling up the landfills with unnecessary garbage that can be recycled,” association Director Rachel Thelemann wrote in an email.
A ribbon cutting for the 50th and France organic recycling program is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the business district’s disposal site.
Domack is working with Thelemann to expand the program to other businesses in the district. The business association hopes to eventually have all 50th and France businesses participating in organic recycling.
Businesses generate more than half of the waste in Hennepin County and nearly two-thirds of that waste is recyclable, according to the county. The county’s goal is to have half of all of its trash recycled by 2015.
Hennepin County offers either a $10,000 grant or a $50,000 grant for businesses to begin a recycling program or improve current recycling programs. The next deadline for business grant applications is June 15. Applications can be found at hennepin.us/businessrecycling.
Since implementing organic recycling at 50th and France in mid-March, nine tons of trash has been organically recycled, said Domack, who has been working with the business owners and monitoring the program’s success. The business owners meet with Domack each week to go over numbers and address any questions.
The goal is for the 50th and France businesses to be recycling 70 percent of garbage produced.
“Already we’ve cut our trash in half, which is pretty amazing,” Schlegelmilch said.
In the first few weeks of the program, only about 30 percent was being recycled.
“The success has been in the passion that (the business owners) have,” Domack said.
Saueressig said his Salut staff wants to track the program’s success, and are very involved – to the point where he’s had several dishwashers tattling on each other for not putting garbage in the right bins.
Today, when Schlegelmilch informs a large theater crowd about the new recycling program, he is met with applause.
“It’s been very positive so far,” Schlegelmilch said. “It has positively impacted everyone that works there.”
Domack says that the population is growing faster than ever, and eventually waste facilities may not be able to meet demand.
“We have to do something about it, because when our landfills do eventually fill up, we have no place to go with it. It becomes a huge problem for us and our kids,” Domack said.
Rebekah Ellis is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.