File Photo Recycling Coordinator Christina Wolf and Landfill Superintendent Josh Kraft explain the recycling operation on a tour of the facility during one of the City of Minot’s neighborhood meetings last March.

Minot garbage customers who aren’t recycling or wish to discontinue will have that option starting next April.

The Minot City Council at its meeting Monday, Sept. 15, approved a change on a 5-2 vote that will allow people to opt out of the currently mandated curbside recycling service. Those who wish to continue or new residents wanting to start will be able to do so at the existing rate of $2.60 a month.

Utilities Director Jason Sorenson presented a price schedule for the council’s consideration that reflected how rates might need to rise if participation drops off. For example, at a participation rate of 55%, the rate would go up to $3.54 a month.

The recommendation was to leave the fee alone for 2026 to determine the opt-out level before making a change.

In terms of revenue from recycling, the city was getting $35 a ton a year and a half ago, Sorenson said. Four months ago, the price was $135 a ton. In calculating what might be future costs and revenue, income of $100 a ton was estimated, he said.

“But it’s variable,” he added.

“The trouble here is that we don’t have any way to guess what is going to happen,” Mayor Mark Jantzer said. “I received 10 or 12 contacts from people who said, ‘Don’t mess with this. It’s working. Leave it alone.'”

Asked about the potential of opt-outs jeopardizing the program, Sorenson said a previous survey showed even at a possible fee of $4-$5 a month, about 55% of residents remained interested in curbside recycling.

If the number of collection customers drops in half, it is a large investment in a transfer center and containers just to serve that segment of the population, but certain costs would decline because less recycling trash would be generated, Sorenson said.

“That’s why costs don’t appreciably increase when people come out of the program, because we’re processing less. We’re trucking less,” he said. “We could probably handle a major outflow of people, but we have some wasted resources.”

Council member Mike Blessum proposed to remove the mandate and allow people to sign up to discontinue participation in April. He said it’s likely most people who will opt out already aren’t putting their carts out, so the impact on collection would be minimal.

He said he prefers that people be able to opt out anytime after April, suggesting that picking up the recycling carts is comparable to the city’s current practice of swapping out cart sizes for people throughout the year. He added he does not expect a lot of opt-outs after the April event.

Sorenson noted the city has one employee who spends a lot of time swapping carts. Adding opt-out cart pickups places an additional burden on the staff, he said.

“We might fall behind on some of this,” he said. “We’re running short-handed a lot of the time.”

Blessum questioned whether contracting the swaps and opt-outs is an alternative. Sorenson responded there was discussion on that topic several years ago when the sanitation department faced an employee shortage, but the solution was to improve laborer pay to the level of equipment operators.

Council member Lisa Olson said some residents have expressed that opting out of recycling shouldn’t be allowed because opting out of regular city garbage service is not permitted.

Council member Rob Fuller said emails from the public also suggested Minot should be like other large North Dakota cities. He pointed out Fargo, Bismarck and Grand Forks have recycling but all are optional programs.

“There are people that care about this, and believe me, my intention is not to make it so that people can’t take advantage of something they feel deeply about,” Blessum said. “That’s the great news about what we’re proposing here is that nobody has to lose any of that service.”

However, he added he does not share the view that recycling is part of a greater good overall.

“I feel one of the primary duties as an elected official is to promote and enhance our freedoms as often as we can,” Blessum said.

Blessum’s motion to end the recycling mandate drew support from Fuller, Scott Samuelson, Mike Hayes and Paul Pitner. Opposed were Jantzer and Olson.