Waste Partners Most Frequently Asked Questions

Let us help you.

Find your answers here in our frequently asked questions. If you still can’t find what you are looking for please contact us. 

Charges

The Fuel Component part of your invoice is the component of your service that is related to the cost of diesel fuel and is a component of the overall cost of your collection service.

The Fuel Component portion of your invoice changes when the cost of diesel fuel reaches certain price points; the Fuel Component can increase or decrease depending on the current cost of diesel fuel. We believe the Fuel Component line item on our invoice is the fairest way to manage this significant volatile business expense. Transportation related companies that do not have a Fuel Component on their invoices are not looking long term, and are at risk of not being able to sustain their business as a going concern.

The US Energy Information Administration compiles diesel fuel price information weekly; the information is available on their website at https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel.

Ultimately, we know our company must remain competitive with pricing or potentially lose business. We work very hard to maintain and improve efficiencies to keep the cost of our services as low as possible, working hard to provide the Best Service and the Best Value available in our service areas.

Minnesota Statute 115A.93 states, a licensing authority shall prohibit mixed municipal solid waste collectors from imposing a greater charge on residents who recycle than on residents who do not recycle.

Therefore, there is not an additional charge for residential recycling in the areas that we provide recycling service.

What the State does allow is for us to allocate a portion of your bill to a non-taxable service if you have recycling service. This portion of your bill is non – taxable in terms of the Solid Waste Management Tax.

What this amounts to is you saving the tax 9.75% SWM Tax on this portion of your bill (around 60 to 70 cents per month savings). If you called and said you would no longer like to recycle, the entire amount of your collection service would be taxable and you would be paying more per month for your garbage bill because it would all be taxed.

If you are gone for at least two months within a calendar year you can get on our seasonal rate.

While the rate is a little higher you are only charged for the time you are here.

If you are gone for at least two consecutive collection days and pre-arrange no pickup needed with our office we credit your account for those weeks.

You can call our office to make a payment over the phone – however there is an extra cost of $5.49.

A better option may be going on our website; Online Payments and you can make the same payment with no additional charge.

You will need account number and password (password is the last 4 numbers of your phone number on file).

*Did you know you can sign up for ACH (Automatic Withdrawal) from your savings or checking account and save a dollar per month off your bill?

Refer to the payment tab on this website for more information and enrollment form.

Disposable Items

Florescent lightbulbs should not be disposed of in your regular garbage due to mercury concerns. Recycling fluorescent bulbs is required by law by the Minnesota Dept. of Environmental Quality https://tcrwusa.com/pages/minnesota-fluorescent-bulb-recycling-regulations

Most hardware stores have a program to recycle bulbs. Florescent lightbulbs are not accepted in our residential curbside recycling program.

The State of Minnesota passed a State Statute banning waste tires from any landfills.

Please call our office to make arrangements for collection of these items.  An additional charge is required for the collection of these items based on location.

Another option would be Crow Wing County Solid Waste Site or Cass County Solid Waste does provide a drop-off location for Crow Wing/ Cass County residents.

The County does not take tires from retailers. The cost to dispose of a tire is dependent upon size and whether the tire has a rim or not.

For more info, visit the county websites.

  1. https://crowwing.us/227/Sanitary-Landfill
  2. http://www.co.cass.mn.us/government/county_directory/environmental_services/index.php

Both Crow Wing and Cass county have drop sites where can bring your used oil.

Check out your County website for locations of disposal sites in your area.

  1. https://crowwing.us/227/Sanitary-Landfill
  2. http://www.co.cass.mn.us/government/county_directory/environmental_services/index.php

Please call our office for pricing and to make arrangements for collection of these large bulky items. These items will likely require a different truck than normal that can handle the larger items to be dispatched to your location.

An additional charge is required for the collection of these items and is based on what you have to be thrown and your location.

Another option is to take these items to your local dump or transfer station –

Cass County Transfer Station:            218-587-3500

Crow Wing County Landfill:               218-828-4392

Ideal Township Transfer Station:        http://idealtownship.com/services/transfer-station

Call your county Household hazardous waste facility:

Crow Wing 218-828-4392  

– http://www.crowwing.us/229/Hazardous-Waste

Cass County 218-587-3500

– http://www.co.cass.mn.us/services/land/solid_waste

These items should not be disposed of in your regular garbage.

Our trucks are not designed to handle most construction and demolition debris.

You may need to use a roll off type of container to dispose of this type of material.

Please contact our office so we can steer you in the best direction for the type and quantity of debris you have.

Large electrical residential appliances like these are referred to as “white goods” and can’t be thrown in the trash.  Please call our office to make arrangements for collection of these items.  An additional charge is required for the collection of these items.

Another option is to take these items to your local dump/ transfer station/ Recycling Center –

Cass County Transfer Station:            218-587-3500

Pine River Iron and Metal:                 218-587-2700

Crow Wing County Landfill:               218-828-4392

Ideal Township Transfer Station:        218-543-4392

Crow Wing Recycling:                        218-828-0048

Please call our office for pricing and to make arrangements for collection of these. It is against the law to put these items in with your regular trash and requires us to collect them separately. An additional charge is required for the collection of these items and is based on what you have to be disposed of and your location.

Another option is to take these items to your local dump or transfer station –

Cass County Transfer Station:            218-587-3500

Crow Wing County Landfill:               218-828-4392

Batteries of all kinds can be disposed of at the household hazards waste facility in your county.

You can also store them up and mail back to the manufacturer.

Automotive stores that sell batteries also collect and dispose of used car batteries.

Needles that no longer have medication in them can be disposed in the garbage.

Place needles in a sturdy container such as a sharps container or coffee can, seal the container with duct tape, write the word “sharps” on them and place in your refuse.

We would appreciate a call so a note may be placed on your account for the driver’s safety.

Liquid medications can be disposed of at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility. Filled syringes are not accepted; contact your pharmacy or physician’s office about disposal options.

 

Pick Up Info

Most likely if your cart was not entirely dumped, the bottom of your container was stuffed with lightweight debris (plastic bags, Styrofoam, etc…) that was not heavy enough to fall out when the cart was dumped or material was stuck/frozen to the bottom.

This has become an issue as we have found it necessary to convert our residential collection fleet to “fully automated” trucks.

Switching to these trucks has transformed our industry’s ability to attract and retain drivers, increasing the applicant pool and providing opportunities to potential drivers that otherwise would choose a less strenuous manner of employment.

To avoid having a partially dumped cart, place a bag of garbage at the bottom of the cart and then place lighter material on top of the heavier trash.  This way when the cart is dumped the heavier trash will help sweep out the lighter trash.

Our entire industry is known for this because of two main reasons. One reason is that once the general public is up and about, our ability to get around in a timely manner diminishes greatly.

The second main reason is that our routes are 10 to 12 hours long and the dumps where we must take our trash close by 4pm-5pm. Consider road conditions, traffic, and potential breakdowns and you can see why we start early.

Your cart should be placed at the end of your driveway or at the alley line.

Please place carts within three feet behind the curb/roadside, away from poles, mailboxes, vehicles, etc. with the lid opening facing the street.

Our commercial drivers start around 3am in order to get into the accounts that will be blocked by cars once people start getting to work. Our residential drivers begin their routes at 5:30 am (even earlier on holiday weeks when dump times are reduced).

Collection times will vary during the year as our many seasonal customers come and go. In addition, road conditions due to construction or weather can impact route times significantly. Therefore, we suggest you put your garbage and/or recycling material out for collection the night before if you are unfamiliar with your routes changing schedule.

There are separate routes and trucks for collection of the garbage and the recycling material, so you will likely have different collection times for each.

If you think you have missed the collection truck, call our office and we can contact the driver and see if they may still be in the area.  In most cases we ask you to wait till the following week’s collection and simply put any extra bags out at no charge.

An additional return trip charge (based on additional distance) may be required if you absolutely need us to come back on different day or drive back to an area we have already serviced.

Waste Partners observes the six national holidays that the disposal facilities in the area are closed: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Residential routes will run their normal schedule on the weekdays prior to the day of the observed holiday.

There will be no residential collections on the day of the observed holiday.  Residential routes will then be serviced one day later than normal following the observed holiday. The holiday schedule concludes with the normally Friday collection routes being serviced on Saturday.

Please put your garbage and/or recycling material out the night before on these weeks since we start even earlier and typically dispatch helper trucks/drivers to alleviate the additional trash generated on these weeks. Area dumps are also limited in their times they are open on Saturdays so we need to compress a normal route into their schedule.

A Holiday Schedule can be found on our website by clicking on schedules and scrolling down the Holiday Schedule for Residential Services.

Although not a requirement, we do recommended that customers bag garbage for sanitary reasons and to reduce the chance of items blowing away during the collection process.

We have a process our drivers complete with each stop that is not “out” for collection in order to earn their bonus each week. They must circle the stop and write down the time they were by so we can communicate that information to our customers.

In addition, most new garbage trucks are equipped with cameras that record from three directions (front/rear/ and street-side). These are very valuable tools for issues like this as well as accident investigation or driving complaints.

We have also learned of many situations that tend to get people off schedule. For instance, any time school is closed/late we get several calls because kids are often given this task as a responsibility, but were not up that morning to take out in time.

Holiday weeks are also known for getting people off their typical routines and often put trash out on the wrong day or after the collection truck has serviced the area.

Recycling

Minnesota Statute 115A.93 states, a licensing authority shall prohibit mixed municipal solid waste collectors from imposing a greater charge on residents who recycle than on residents who do not recycle.

Therefore, there is not an additional charge for residential recycling in the areas that we provide recycling service.

What the State does allow is for us to allocate a portion of your bill to a non-taxable service if you have recycling service. This portion of your bill is non – taxable in terms of the Solid Waste Management Tax.

What this amounts to is you saving the tax 9.75% SWM Tax on this portion of your bill (around 60 to 70 cents per month savings).  If you called and said you would no longer like to recycle, the entire amount of your collection service would be taxable and you would be paying more per month for your garbage bill because it would all be taxed.

No. Styrofoam and/or plastic bags are not accepted in our recycling program.

These items should be bagged and placed in your cart so they do not blow way during the collection process.

No. plastic flower pots and landscape edging are not accepted in our recycling program.  These items are made from a plastic material that is not currently being recycled.

The plastic flower pots and landscape edging often have dirt on them that can contaminate the recycling material.

These items should be disposed of with your regular garbage.

Waste Destination

Waste Partners, Inc. utilizes only properly licensed and permitted disposal facilities that meet or exceed both Federal and State Environmental Regulations.

Waste Partners, Inc. uses the following disposal facilities as primary disposal facilities for mixed municipal solid waste:

  • Crow Wing County waste is disposed of at the Crow Wing County Sanitary Landfill, Oak Lawn Township, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, MPCA permit #SW-376
  • Cass County Waste is brought to the Cass County Transfer Station, Backus, Cass County, Minnesota, MPCA permit #SW-419.

Yard Waste

Hours: Open 24 hours: 7 days a week.

Location: Pelican Lake Community Center is located on County Road 4, 1 mile south of the Breezy Point Resort entrance.

Phone: 218-562-4566

Closed during fall / winter season

Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday – Friday

Location: 14250 Conservation Drive, Brainerd, MN 56401

Phone: 218-829-8770

Hours: Saturdays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the month of October.

Location: Mission Transfer Station Site on East Horseshoe Lake Road, Crosby, Minnesota 56441.

This is available only for the residents of Mission Township.

Phone: 218-546-6393

Hours: Fall: Labor Day – November 15, Wednesdays and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: Located off of County Road 16 at the end of West Island Lake Drive.

Phone: 218-543-4392

During the summer months we will remove bags of leaves for $3 a bag if left out by garbage can, if you have a large number of bags please make arrangement with our office for pickup.

Brush can be taken in small quantities if it’s bundled.  Otherwise the county offers free drop off service

Location & Hours

The Compost Facility located at the Crow Wing County Solid Waste Disposal Site is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Compost is a free service; however, commercial brush and stumps will be charged. For additional information, please call the Landfill Office at 218-828-4392.

Procedures
Check in at the Landfill Office for instructions and waste inspections. The Compost Facility has 2 disposal locations. One location is for brush and the other location is for yard waste. Please keep your brush separate from your yard waste.

Stumps are handled separately and the fee is dependent on the size.

Brush / Yard Waste

Additional Leaf Disposal Sites in Crow Wing County

Waste Partners Inc Scroll to Top