City Council Meeting Date: August 3, 2026
To: Mayor and Members of Council
City Administrator
From: Ben Martig, City Administrator
David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Consider Approval of Residential Curbside Compost/Organic Recycling Program Direction.
Body
Action Requested:
City Council is asked to approve a motion directing staff to prepare bids, timelines, and other relevant information for a universal residential curbside organics recycling program for further Council review and consideration of release for proposals.
Summary Report:
At its December 2025 meeting, the City Council removed organics recycling from the residential waste contract. Since that time, staff have conducted additional research on organics recycling programs, including legal and policy considerations, participation rates, and implementation approaches used by other Minnesota communities.
Through this research, staff learned that if the City were to implement a citywide organics collection program through a residential waste contract, state law would require all residents to be charged equally for recycling services, including organics recycling. This information changes the feasibility of some program structures previously discussed by Council. At the July 7, 2026 meeting, the City Council discussed the following three options for organic recycling:
1) Maintain the current approach, allowing residents to subscribe directly to private organics collection service through Curbside Compost.
2) Maintain the current approach while expanding organics access through additional drop-off locations and future coordination with Dakota County. This option aligns with Dakota County's 2030 goals.
3) Implement a universal curbside organics recycling program for all residential customers with an implementation target for mid-2027.
Staff met with Curbside Compost, which indicated strong interest in a universal compost program acknowledged that the service will be subject to a competitive bidding process. If selected through that process, the company indicated it would be prepared to implement a universal organics collection as early as spring 2027.
During its July 7, 2026, discussion, the consensus of City Council expressed interest in pursuing Option 3, a universal residential curbside organics recycling program (Beumer offered no change alternative). Additionally, this was confirmed as part of the budget recap on “what staff heard” at the July 14th budget work session. Consistent with that discussion, staff recommends moving forward with the necessary steps to solicit bids for the program, with additional timelines and information to come back in September or October for review and direction for releasing proposal requests for universal curbside composting.
City Plans & Policies Relevance:
Comprehensive Plan
Climate Action Plan
Presented to Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) on June 17, 2026.
• Recommendation: EQC recommends exploring a universal organics program that is consistent with the recommended motion.
Alternative Options:
Council could direct staff to proceed with the following options:
Alternative 1: (status quo): Motion to “direct staff to proceed any further on review and remain with ‘status quo.’” Note this is not advised by staff as it is not consistent with the comprehensive plan, climate action plan as Alternative 2 would provide a more incremental option that doesn’t commit at this time to implementing immediately.
Alternative 2: (commitment to Dakota County timeline): Motion to “direct staff to proceed with active participation of Dakota County curbside compost universal option with current intended timeline of 2030 implementation.”
Financial Impacts:
Preliminary cost estimates for a universal organics program will be presented for discussion; no financial action is requested.
Tentative Timelines:
Tentatively considering an agenda item in September or October for review and direction from council to release proposals. More detailed timelines would be developed after council action.