Organics Recycling

Vierkant will be picking up and emptying carts until the evening hours on their daily routes, especially when construction impedes their daily progress. Please wait to bring your carts inside if they have not been emptied yet as they may still be working to get to your neighborhood. If your cart does get accidently missed for pick up, please call Vierkant as soon as possible to request it be emptied. Their main office number is 612-922-2505.

Organics recycling is picked up every week, the same day as your regular trash day.

Enter your address or just click your home area on this interactive map to see your collection day and annual schedule. For a downloadable calendar (PDF), see the pickup schedules tab on the Recycling page.

Yes, tea bags can go in there. A couple things to make sure of first though: 1) make sure it is the paper bag kind of tea bag, not the plastic netting ones. The plastic ones are usually triangular. If they are the plastic kind, you can open them up and put the leaves into your organics bin, but the plastic part must be disposed of in the garbage can. 2) If your tea bag has a small metal staple on the top, remove that beforehand putting it in the bin.

No. Plastic bags are not compostable and are a contaminant. You risk turning an entire load of compostable material into garbage if you use plastic bags. Use bags labeled “BPI-certified compostable.” These bags can be purchased at retail locations such as Jerry’s Do it Best Hardware, Cub, Lunds & Byerly’s, and your local co-op.

 Paper grocery bags are acceptable, as are lawn and leaf bags. These types of bags are good for drier items like fruit peels. Paper bags are not ideally suited for wet items like coffee grounds, and we highly recommend using the green compostable film bags for dairy and meat products to reduce pests. 

No. The bagging of organics is a guidance based on what has worked best previously. It is highly recommended for all dairy and meat items, as these tend to create smell. Larger and dry items can certainly be put directly into the cart without bagging.