Environmental Center opens in Roseville
A one-stop shop for safe disposal, recycling, reusing, and repairing
The new Ramsey County Environmental Center opening today in Roseville is a sustainability marvel.
Powered by geothermal and solar energy, built with reclaimed materials, and surrounded by native plantings and landscaping that was amended with 1,770 cubic yards of food scrap compost, the new Environmental Center is ready to receive your food scraps, recyclables, and household hazardous waste.
At a press conference and media tour, Ramsey County representatives and staff invited Twin Cities media—including the Roseville Reader—on a behind-the-scenes look at the Environmental Center, to showcase all the features and services available to residents.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that the Environmental Center was built with sustainability in mind from below ground on up,” said Kelly Miller, Ramsey County Commissioner representing District 7.
The parking lot and drive lanes are made from recycled roadway asphalt. Red brick pavers from University Avenue, which were removed when the Green Line was built, were repurposed for the outdoor learning space. This 29,421 square-foot facility was built on a former brownfield site.
“It’s truly amazing what Ramsey County did within just a few months. They took this county land which was contaminated with chemical waste and turned it into a vibrant new asset for the community. It was truly unusable as it was,” Victoria Reinhardt, former Ramsey County Commissioner, said.
When you enter the property, signs and arrows will direct you to where you need to go. Food scraps can be dropped off in bins and new compostable bags can be picked up from the attendant. Household recycling, cardboard, and scrap aluminum and steel each have their own outdoor dumpsters. Staff refers to the outdoor recycling area as the “Z wall” because of its zig-zag shape.
If you’ve brought household hazardous waste or electronics, drive through a fully enclosed, climate-controlled space where workers will greet you and take your items out of your car for you.
Items such as fluorescent light bulbs, electronics, and batteries will be recycled or refurbished and reused. All data from electronics is destroyed physically or electronically wiped by Repowered, a nonprofit electronics and refurbishing organization.
Household hazardous waste—such as household cleaners, paint, motor oil, windshield wiper fluid, pesticides, propane tanks, and any partially-full container that has the words “caution, warning, danger, or poison” on the label can be brought in for safe disposal. If the product is still useable, staff will add it to the Environmental Service’s Reuse Room. Medical sharps are accepted, but prescription drugs are not. Learn where you can drop-off unwanted medicine here.
On a regular basis, between 8 to 15 staff will be on site to operate the facility. Eight staff are from Bay West, which the County has already been working with for 26 years. Bay West will be fully moving their operations to the Environmental Center. The County will also have five environmental health staff on site. In addition to greeting guests bringing items to drop-off, employees will be working in the warehouse to properly sort and store the items for disposal, recycling, or reuse. There is also a safety room for combustible materials.
“The warehouse is very large and designed intentionally to reduce processing bottle necks and give us maximum flexibility if we were to grow,” said Daniel Schmidt, division manager for Ramsey County Environmental Health. Schmidt’s role is to manage the team that operates the Environmental Center.
Community Space
If you’re not dropping off items, you may be coming to browse the Community Reuse Room to pick up a household product like paint, automotive products, or household cleaning products for free. Or perhaps you’ll be there to attend an environmental educational program or to get help repairing an item at a Fix-It Clinic. If you have an electric vehicle, you can charge it at one of the two EV charging stations in the parking lot while you’re there.
“We work with Extension volunteers. We may see 4H programming out here, gardening demonstrations, land care, and reduced toxicity trainings,” said Beth Carreño, Ramsey County environmental health supervisor. The outdoor community demonstration area showcases rain barrels and compost bins.
The parking area was designed with school buses in mind—Ramsey County is hoping that schools and other groups will schedule environmental education field trips to the Center.
The Fix-It Clinics, which have moved around to different locations previously, will now occur only at the Environmental Center in Roseville. In 2024, volunteer fixers helped to repair 520 items such as ripped jeans, zippers, and small household appliances. If you have skills in soldering, electrical repair, sewing, woodworking, and general tinkering and troubleshooting, you can sign up to volunteer as a fixer. Just email FixItClinics@ramseycounty.us or call 651-266-1130 for details and to sign up.
Prevention is one of the guiding principles for the Environmental Center.
“This is where residents can go to prevent harmful materials and chemicals from getting into our water, land, and environment—and ultimately ourselves,” said Amy Caron, St Paul and Ramsey County public health director.
Located at 1700 Kent Street, just north of Larpenteur Ave in Roseville, the Environmental Center will be open Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Environmental Center replaces Ramsey County collections at Bay West and mobile household hazardous waste collection sites. Yard waste will not be accepted here, so you can continue to take that to existing yard waste sites. Even though this is a Ramsey County facility, any residents in the 7-county metro area are welcome to use it.
“This is going to be a great resource for so many folks,” said Rose Lindsay, a Roseville resident and director of communications & public relations at Ramsey County.
Earth Week Celebrations
On Earth Day, April 22, be one of the first 200 to drop off your household hazardous waste and electronics and receive a giveaway! On April 24, come for an open house from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The first Fix-It Clinic at the Environmental Center will take place on April 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Residents can bring in small household appliances, clothing, electronics, mobile devices, and more to get troubleshooting and repair assistance.
Learn more:
A peek inside:
NineNorth produced a video of the press conference and the indoor and outdoor areas at the Environmental Center. Watch it on YouTube:
In case you missed it:
Food scraps pickup program delayed for Roseville
Ramsey and Washington Counties have been rolling out a new Food Scraps Pickup Program for cities across both counties, but it won’t be available to Roseville residents until late 2026 or 2027.