Frequently Asked Questions

Organics recycling is an opportunity to reduce trash that ends up in a landfill. It is a separate collection that accepts organic material, such as:

• Food scraps (fruits; vegetables; meat, fish, and bones; dairy products; eggs and eggshells; pasta, beans, and rice; bread and cereal; and much more
• Pizza boxes from delivery
• Napkins and paper towels
• Paper egg cartons
• Certified compostable products
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Hair and nail clippings
• Cotton balls and swabs with paper stems
• Houseplants and flowers
• Wooden items, such as popsicle sticks and toothpicks

For a more comprehensive list of items accepted, view organics recycling disposal guide.

Residents can sign up with the City of Champlin. An organics recycling container will be delivered to you by your hauler.

Hennepin County requires cities with 10,000 or more residents to make organics recycling available. Cities have to provide the opportunity to participate in curbside collection of organic material to residential households that are single family through fourplex and other residential households where each household has its own collection container for mixed recyclables. Curbside collection of organic material must be provided year-round on a weekly basis. Multifamily properties (HOAs) where each household has its own collection Container for mixed recyclables must also provide the opportunity to participate in curbside collection of organic material. 

State law (MN Statute 115A.93) requires that (in communities where organics recycling service is available) all residents must be charged for the service regardless of their participation. The fee is $3.85 per month for single family properties in the city's organized solid waste collection program. Properties outside of the city's program must work with their hauler to determine a fee. 

Minnesota statute prohibits charging more to customers who recycle organics than those who do not. The same is true of mixed recycling. View Minnesota Statute 115A.93.

Organics collection must be provided year-round on a weekly basis. Pickup is the same day as residential refuse pickup.

Organics recycling containers are provided at no additional fee to residents who are participating in organics recycling. Residents may purchase their own compostable bags. Compostable bags are sold at most grocery, hardware, and large retail stores. The City is providing one free box of compostable bags per household, available at Grady's Ace Hardware. 

Organics must be placed in certified compostable bags before putting them in your organics cart. Place larger items (like pizza delivery boxes and paper egg cartons) directly in the cart. Compostable bags are sold at most grocery, hardware, and large retail stores. You will know a certified compostable bag by the BPI logo. For more information, view Hennepin County's organics brochure and setting up organics. You may use paper bags, but BPI bags are preferred because they hold liquid better. 

Organics won't smell any more than your garbage does. You are simply moving the organics from the refuse container to the organics container.

Help prevent odors by using an indoor kitchen pail with a vented lid. Food waste decomposes and creates odors more quickly when access to oxygen is cut off. You can purchase a kitchen pail with a vented lid or you can make one using an ice cream pail or other container.

Consider collecting your "wet" organics (food scraps, meat trimmings, etc.) in a large yogurt or cottage cheese container or ice cream pail and keep the container in your refrigerator or freezer. Dump the wet organics into a compostable bag and place the bag in the organics cart the night before your collection day.

Once haulers collect the organics material, it is taken to the Brooklyn Park Transfer Station then taken an organics recycling facility that produces compost.

The city and the county do not have a rebate program at this time.