The MPCA will provide a total of $5.3 million to 11 grant recipients for projects that will build lasting capacity to support recycling markets in Minnesota. These efforts make recycled materials more valuable, keep recyclable materials out of the waste stream, and create jobs in Minnesota.
Healthy recycling markets convert recyclable materials into commodities and supply them to manufacturers to be made into new products. The businesses that process and use those commodities are critical to the system. In fact, without businesses that use recyclable material to make products, we can't have recycling. Recycling market development works to expand these end markets to boost the demand for recycled materials.
When some large overseas markets for recyclables closed, brokers had to look closer to home. This put pressure on the whole recycling system across the country and in Minnesota. Having stable markets close to home is key to keeping Minnesota’s recycling industry strong and sustainable. It makes sense to sell recyclable material to local or regional markets.
This round of grant funding focused on projects that stabilize or grow recycling markets for the following priority materials:
- mixed paper and corrugated cardboard
- glass food and beverage containers, window and door glass
- polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP)
- plastic film (includes retail bag film, pallet wrap film, agricultural plastic, and boat wrap)
- textiles
- solar panels
- gypsum and drywall
Most of these materials are represented in the 11 projects selected to receive funding.
“We have a great mix of projects this year,” said Susan Heffron, a recycling market development coordinator with the MPCA. “They address some hard-to-recycle materials and everyday recyclables that people put in their carts at the curb. Both are needed to keep markets strong and to divert materials from being landfilled.”
The grant program started in 2019 after the Minnesota Legislature dedicated $800,000 every two years to support it. The MPCA already had a recycling market development program and a revolving loan fund and had helped some recyclers accept additional materials via equipment purchases, but the grants allowed the program to expand on those efforts. With the budget surplus in the 2023 legislative session, the MPCA recycling market development program was able to secure a substantial one-time increase for the 2024 round of grants. Requests for funding exceeded the amount of available funds by more than three times, clearly showing the interest and demand across Minnesota for more recycling market development projects.
The MPCA anticipates opening another application round for this grant program in early 2026.
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Grant recipients
Eureka Recycling
- Grant award: $850,000
- Project cost: $1,569,463
Eureka Recycling will purchase an optical sorter for its container line in Minneapolis to separate out glass, paper, and cardboard. These materials can then get recycled instead of ending up in residual or contaminating plastics.
Cosmic Recycling
- Grant award: $850,000
- Project cost: $1,020,001
Cosmic Recycling in Fairfax will purchase a shredding and separation production line, a clean metals production line, and a mobile shredding unit to recycle solar panels. This growth in capacity will increase the solar panel recycling market and create seven jobs in Minnesota.
GypCycle
- Grant award: $850,000
- Project cost: $1.02 million
Princeton-based GypCycle will purchase equipment to convert used drywall into an agricultural product. The product, gypsum, will be spread on farm fields in and near Princeton to enhance soil fertility and water retention capacity. This approach diverts waste from landfills while providing a valuable resource for the agricultural sector.
LEI Packaging
- Grant award: $850,000
- Project cost: $1.7 million
LEI Packaging will establish a sustainable production line in Chisago City which produces items made of molded fiber from an estimated 500-700 tons annually of mixed paper and corrugated cardboard.
Prime Extrusion
- Grant award: $200,000
- Project cost: $240,000
Prime Extrusion in Greenfield will purchase an extruder and a shredder that will process more difficult HDPE scrap from companies like By The Yard. This requires a vented extruder and ram-stuffing hopper to create pellets that are more valuable to end manufacturers. The equipment will decrease the amount of waste plastic sent to landfills in Minnesota by an estimated 1 million pounds per year or more.
Polk County
- Grant award: $850,000
- Project cost: $1,264,000
Polk County will purchase a flip-flow separator integrator to clean glass so that it can be recycled instead of being used as alternative daily cover at the landfill. The county will also purchase a bag opener that will allow the facility to capture recyclables that are currently being thrown out because the current system cannot open bags.
Employment Enterprises
- Grant award: $119,479
- Project cost: $149,348
Employment Enterprises, a nonprofit in Little Falls, will purchase handling equipment and balers to help it recycle more cardboard, paper, steel, aluminum, and glass from local businesses. It currently has customers on a waiting list and will be able to service them with this new equipment.
FoamCraft Packaging
- Grant award: $149,519
- Project cost: $179,422
FoamCraft in Owatonna makes protective foam for hard-case shipping and is currently landfilling its foam waste. By purchasing a pelletizer and a shredder, it will be able to recycle this waste and make it into foam again. The shredder will be used for shredding unusable pallets into animal bedding.
Slagle’s Demolition Landfill and Rolloff
- Grant award: $131,607
- Project cost: $164,509
Slagle’s Demolition Landfill in Cass County will purchase equipment to fully mechanize and streamline processing and sorting recyclables. Adding this sorting and processing machinery will increase the amount of recycled materials and reduce physical burden on employees.
Atlas Games
- Grant award: $99,359
- Project cost: $119,274
Atlas Games in Proctor will use this grant to fund equipment and staff to increase Replay Workshop’s capacity to collect, process, and market color-sorted post-consumer recycled HDPE and polypropylene in smaller quantities for its business and other businesses that need smaller amounts than what’s available on the recycling market.
True North Goodwill Industries
- Grant award: $350,000
- Project cost: $421,000
True North in Duluth will upgrade its aging equipment; purchases will allow it to process up to 6,000 pocket-coil mattresses per year, increasing its recycling of steel, foam, felt, and wood. The upgrade will allow True North to add 1.5 employees.