Most restaurants, colleges, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, food processors, and caterers conducting business in the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District are required to separate and recycle their pre-consumer food waste. WLSSD Solid Waste Ordinance Approved food waste recycling options include food to people feeding programs, licensed animal feeding operations, and licensed composting facilities.
Call WLSSD for assistance: 218.722.3336. Our staff will help you develop an organics recycling program that works. Most restaurants start recycling food waste after one short visit from us (always free!)
Arrange for free pick-up/delivery of surplus edible food with Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank. Edible surplus food goes to local food banks and feeding programs like Second Harvest, CHUM, Damiano Center, and the Salvation Army.
Contact your garbage hauler to arrange for food waste (organics) collection at your business. They’ll provide food waste carts or dumpsters and transport the material to the WLSSD composting facility for a fee. When separated from regular garbage, recycled food waste is not subject to the taxes and fees associated with garbage sent to the landfill. That means no tipping fee, Solid Waste Management Fee or State of MN disposal tax (17%) will be assessed on clean, source-separated food waste that is recycled through composting or sent to feeding programs.