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1. What can I put in my food scraps bags?

All food items are accepted.

• Coffee grounds and filters. No coffee pods.
• Fruits and vegetables (including peels, pits, and rinds). Remove stickers.
• Dairy products (including cheese and yogurt)
• Nuts and nut shells (except black walnut shells)
• Bread, tortillas, pasta, rice and cereals
• Eggs and eggshells
• Moldy or rotten food
• Meat and seafood (including bones, scales and shells)
• Beans and lentils
• Tea leaves (no tea bags)
• Corn cobs, corn husks and popcorn kernels
• Pastries, pies, dough and candy
• Herbs and spices
• Seeds (including bird seeds)
• Pet food

2. What can't I put in my food scraps bags?

• Ashes
• Batteries or electronic waste
• Butcher paper, wax paper, parchment paper or muffin cups.
• Cartons (including milk, wine, broth, and ice cream cartoons)
• Charcoal
• Chewing gum
• Cigarettes
• Cotton balls and swabs
• Dead animals
• Dental floss
• Diapers.
• Drier lint or dryer sheets
• Food packaging
• Frozen food boxes
• Gloves, balloons or similar products
• Grease or oil
• Hair and nail clippings
• Hazardous waste, including paint, cleaners, and automotive fluids
• Medications and vitamins
• Microwave popcorn bags
• Pizza boxes
• Paper or plastic products like plates, bowls, cups and to go containers
• Pet waste (including dog waste, kitty litter, cage bedding)
• Personal hygiene products
• Plastic bags
• Polystyrene / Styrofoam TM
• Recyclable items (boxes, cartoons, glass, metal, paper, and plastic)
• Rocks, soil or dirt.
• Rubber or rubber bands
• Sharps
• Shredded paper
• Stickers on produce
• Trash
• Vacuum cleaner bags and contents or floor sweepings
• Wax
• Wipes (all kinds)
• Wood or sawdust
• Wrappers or containers (including takeout food containers)
• Wrapping paper, tissue paper, packing paper, tape or receipts
• Yard and garden waste (including grass, leaves and branches)

3. How do I collect my food scraps?

Collect your food scraps in the City-provided kitchen container lined with the City-provided durable compostable bag. Once your bag is full, knot it closed. Place it in your trash cart for collection on your regular trash day. 

4. What types of bags are acceptable?

Use only the program-provided durable compostable food scrap bags during this pilot. Other bags (including other types of compostable bags) will not work for this program.

5. Why collect food scraps?

Red Wing’s Food Scraps pilot program is part of a larger study the City is conducting to identify ways to offer composting to help meet Minnesota’s goal of reducing waste by 75% by 2030.

Food scraps make up about 30% of Red Wing’s trash. By composting food waste, you turn it into enriched soil rather than waste.   

Compost

• Helps soil hold more water
• Improves the structure of the soil
• Boosts the activity of helpful microbes
• Increases the amount of organic material in the soil

6. Why use food scrap bags instead of separate food scrap carts?

The Red Wing Food Scraps Collection Pilot Program uses special compostable bags called “durable compost food scraps bags.” With this system, both the food scrap bags and trash bags go in the same trash cart. The durable compostable bags are designed to make it through the collection process. They withstand weather impacts and do not tear when hauled and dumped by trash trucks. They biodegrade in 45 days at a commercial composting facility.

Durable compost food scraps bags are a more efficient and cost-effective method of collecting food scraps because:

• Food scrap bags costs much less than a compost collection system that uses separate carts for food scraps
• Using durable compostable bags eliminates the need for additional collection days, collection carts, or hauling trucks

7. What happens to my food scrap bag after I put it in my trash cart?

Your trash hauler will pick up your trash, with the food scrap bags, on your regular collection day. At the Red Wing Waste Campus, all items from the truck are dumped and then scooped onto a conveyor. Staff who monitor the conveyor will separate the food scrap bags from the trash. The food scrap bags and their contents are then sent to a commercial composting facility and turned into nutrient-rich soil called “compost.”