Daniels Sharpsmart, Inc., a waste management company with a facility in Shakopee, has paid $47,000 in penalties for improper hazardous waste storage and for violating its infectious waste management plan.
After receiving complaints about the company’s practices, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) opened an investigation into Daniels Sharpsmart and found that it had intentionally stored 132 shipments of hazardous waste at its facility in Shakopee between 2023 and 2025 without obtaining the necessary permit to do so. The company had also failed to document shipments of infectious waste according to its approved infectious waste management plan.
Between 2023 and 2025, Daniels Sharpsmart received 19 shipments of hazardous waste it was not permitted to receive. Under state law, those shipments must be rejected, handled appropriately, and reported to the MPCA. Investigators found the company failed to report those 19 rejected shipments. The company had also failed to send 11 rejected hazardous waste shipments to appropriate facilities. Daniels Sharpsmart also failed to send an additional seven rejected hazardous waste shipments to appropriate facilities within 60 days. The MPCA also found that the company had changed its infectious waste transportation documentation procedures in March of 2025 without notifying the MPCA and requesting the required approval to make the changes.
In addition to paying the fine, Daniels Sharpsmart has agreed to stop improperly storing hazardous waste at its Shakopee facility, to properly handle hazardous waste inadvertently received at the facility, and to comply with the company’s infectious waste management plans approved by the MPCA. The MPCA is committed to protecting human health and the environment by enforcing rules and regulations and limiting pollution and discharges from facilities. When facilities do not fully comply with regulatory requirements, the resulting pollution can be harmful to people and the environment. Since 2019, the MPCA has issued 8,419 enforcement actions amounting to more than $24 million in penalties. Penalty payments go into the MPCA's general fund, which enables the MPCA to protect communities and the environment from harmful pollution.
When calculating penalties the MPCA considers a number of factors including the seriousness of the violation, the potential for harm to human health or the environment, history of noncompliance, and the economic benefit the company gained by failing to comply with environmental laws.