Shut down the Minneapolis trash burner

I am appealing to Twin Cities-area folks to sign a petition to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners to have a definitive shutdown date for the trash burner in Downtown Minneapolis, called HERC, as central to its zero waste plan. I’ve been involved with local environmental justice activists in this cause for over a year. My wife and I live less than a mile and a half away from the trash burner, where nearly half of the non-recycled, non-composted waste in Hennepin County is burned next to North Minneapolis, a majority BIPOC neighborhood with the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the entire state of Minnesota.

We are homeowners who have chosen to live in North Minneapolis, a community that has too long been victimized by concentrated poverty, predatory lenders and landlords, and racism in many forms. The emissions of burning trash from all over the county goes straight into the lungs of North Minneapolis residents like me, my wife, and my neighbors of multiple races, ages, and economic statuses. We North Minneapolis residents should not have to bear the burden of breathing in half the trash of Hennepin County.

The trash burner, Interstate 94 and State Highway 55 all contribute to the environmental racism and classism suffered by my North Minneapolis home. Industrial and automotive pollutants from these sources have a cumulative and detrimental effect on the health and wellness of my neighborhood. Here’s a link to a movement to change Highway 55 in North Minneapolis back to the original Sixth Avenue North residential street. Additionally, here’s a link proposing removing parts of the aging I-94 that runs through Minneapolis and St. Paul to create a neighborly, low-traffic boulevard.