Environmental Center overview
Watch this video to learn more about plans for the Environmental Center.
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Background
Ramsey County evaluated how it provides household hazardous waste services in 2020. After analyzing feedback from community, the county is making plans to restructure its programs to better serve residents.
Residents said they wanted a year-round, accessible household hazardous waste (HHW) program. The county is redesigning its HHW program to be anchored in a new Environmental Center the county will build.
About the site
In selecting a proposed site, the county looked for a central location close to a major road, approximately five acres in size, and that didn’t require substantial costs for demolition of existing structures.
Since Ramsey County is nearly fully developed, there were few available sites that met all these criteria and our goal for accessibility and health equity. The site at 1700 Kent Street in Roseville is the location identified that best meets all these needs.
The county conducted a traffic assessment to ensure minimal disruption to the surrounding area – assessment pointed to an anticipated 3% increase traffic along Larpenteur in the area.
While Ramsey County anticipates the need to remove the non-native, aging evergreen trees along Larpenteur, the county intends to replant with adaptive, native species. More trees will be replanted at the site than removed.
Funding source
Funding comes from the county's solid waste fund balance which must be spent on Solid Waste Plan strategies. Dollars for the fund are generated by the County Environmental Charge (CEC), which has trash-hauling service fees of 28% for residential customers and 53% for non-residential customers. Ongoing operations cost will be built into the Environmental Health division budget.
