New food scraps drop-off site opens in Saint Paul's Union Park
A new drop-off site will make it easier for Ramsey County residents to recycle food scraps. The county has opened the Union Park site, at the corner of Carroll Avenue and North Griggs Street, in response to high demand for food scraps recycling. The site, near the Dunning Park sports complex, is open 24 hours a day, year-round (24/7).
More than 20% of what goes into the trash is food scraps and other organic waste. All food scraps collected at county sites are processed into compost and reused in gardening and landscaping projects. Collecting food scraps for composting puts nutrients back into the soil and keeps that waste out of the trash. All types of food waste are accepted, including meat, bones and dairy.
See a complete list of accepted items.
With this new location, the county now has 17 food scraps drop-off sites – including at all seven Ramsey County yard waste sites. The county started food scraps drop-off at county yard waste sites in 2014 and began adding the first of 10 new 24/7 sites in 2016. The 24/7 food scraps drop-off sites collected 1,695 tons of food waste, or an average of 188 tons per site in 2021. Use of the Saint Paul sites has been particularly strong with 268 tons of food waste collected at the Highland Park and 357 tons at the Como Park sites in 2021.
The county partnered with the City of Saint Paul and the Lexington-Hamline Community Council to establish the new drop-off site.
View map of all recycling collection sites.