Otter Tail County Opens Fifth Food-Scrap Drop-Off Site in New York Mills

Otter Tail County's organics recycling program reached New York Mills on Thursday, placing its fifth public food-scrap drop-off site outside the New York Mills Food Shelf at 400 S. Walker Ave. The location fills a gap on the eastern side of a county network that previously anchored sites in Fergus Falls, Battle Lake, Perham, and Parkers Prairie.

The drop-off takes everything a backyard bin cannot. Meat, dairy, and cooked leftovers are welcome alongside the coffee grounds and vegetable peels most composters already separate. The county built that flexibility into its centralized model because all material collected at the Walker Avenue site, and at the four others, moves to the Glacial Ridge Compost Facility in Hoffman, Minnesota, where it is processed into finished compost rather than absorbed by a landfill cell.

Natalee Yates, Otter Tail County solid waste public information and education officer, said the county "collected approximately 270,000 pounds of food waste last year" across its drop-off network and that officials are "excited to make it even easier for New York Mills residents to participate." When food scraps bypass the landfill, they stop generating methane, a potent greenhouse gas produced when organics decompose without oxygen, and instead return nutrients to agricultural soil. Each pound diverted also avoids a landfill tipping fee, a direct cost reduction for county solid waste operations funded by local taxpayers.

First-time participants can pick up an organics recycling starter kit at New York Mills City Hall, 28 W. Centennial Drive West, at no charge. The kit gives households what they need to begin separating scraps before making the trip to the Walker Avenue drop-off.

Restaurants and other businesses with higher food-waste volumes do not need to haul loads themselves; the Otter Tail County Solid Waste Department arranges direct pickups and can be reached for scheduling details. That option gives local food-service operators an alternative to standard waste disposal, which carries its own tipping fees and leaves no recoverable product behind.

County officials said they plan to track participation rates and compost yields at the New York Mills site as it matures, using those numbers to determine whether additional locations or expanded services are warranted elsewhere in the county.