NSS Weekly: The Challenge of E-Waste

Transcript

[sound element: NSS intro theme]

INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

[NSS theme music ends]

HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I'm Gracie J.

This week, Minnesota lawmakers are back in session after the Easter and Passover break. The session is over on May 18th. Lawmakers have to pass any legislation by then, while also dealing with new ethics complaints and conflict over accusations of illegal conduct by some members of the House. And the International Festival of Minnesota, formerly known as the Festival of Nations, returns to the Twin Cities after a seven-year break. This year's event features participants from nearly 70 nations and ethnic communities.

In this week's program, we take a look at how some companies handle electronic waste. Common practices in the electronics recycling industry has some questioning the hidden realities of domestic e-waste recycling. And we look at how nonprofit organizations work to maintain their missions while being fiscally responsible.

But first, here are some of the stories that made headlines this week.

SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a federal program that helps low-income families buy groceries. It now has new federal eligibility rules. About 440,000 people in Minnesota currently buy food with SNAP benefits, and about 18,000 recipients will need to meet the new requirements or lose their grocery benefits. Under the new rules, most adults younger than 65 and parents with children older than 13 have to work at least 20-hours-a-week to keep their benefits. This includes veterans, youth aging out of foster care and people who are homeless. Statewide food advocates warn the food shelf system, made up largely of community-based nonprofits and volunteer organizations, won't be able to cover the additional people losing their grocery money. Those who help feed Minnesota's hungry, like the Food Group's Rachel Martin Asproth, say the SNAP cuts will increase the pressure on local food shelves.

RACHEL MARTIN ASPROTH: This is really a cornerstone of our hunger relief system. It is absolutely critical, and so that this disinvestment is, it's going to create incredible strain on our statewide hunger relief system.

HOST: State legislators are considering creating a Hmong American Heritage Week. Minnesota is home to nearly 70,000 Hmong people. Many came as refugees after fighting with America in the country of Laos during the Vietnam War, in what's known as 'the Secret War.' The heritage week is intended to preserve the culture and to tell a "fuller Minnesota story." One woman shared how losing cultural heritage in her own family makes it harder to stay connected across generations.

DR. KOU YANG: My own brother lost his Hmong language completely. Today, he can only communicate with our mother through a translator. This is more than language loss. It is severed relationship.

HOST: Hmong Heritage Week would run from May 14th to May 23rd, marking the Hmong refugee journey and arrival in America.

Minnesota received a $100,000 grant to help redesign the state's financial aid system. The funding comes from Lumina Foundation's Great Admissions Redesign initiative, which aims to simplify college admissions and expand access for more students. Officials say Minnesota's current aid formula for higher education is too complex and can be hard for students, families, and lawmakers to predict. The state will use the funding to develop new ways to make financial awards more stable, more predictable and easier to understand. Any final changes to the state's financial aid model would still need approval from the Minnesota Legislature.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Last fall, the environmental watchdog group Basel Action Network included retailer Best Buy in its Brokers of Shame report after tracking electronics from the company's in-store drop-off recycling program to illegal, overseas processing sites. The report says third-party recycling companies shipped materials to unlicensed facilities in Malaysia, where the waste was processed in hazardous conditions. Reporter Xan Holston spoke with lawmakers and experts about how the findings are raising new questions about domestic e-waste recycling, and examines how Minnesota could become a national leader in the industry.

XAN HOLSTON: An outdated laptop, that mystery cord from your long-lost cell phone, the so-called disposable vape, your toddler's old light-up sneakers. If it's got a battery, a cord or a circuit board, it's e-waste, and it shouldn't go into landfills. And for the last couple of legislative sessions, State Representative Athena Hollins has been pushing for Minnesota to update its laws on dealing with e-waste, all those pesky, broken devices gathering dust in closets, boxes and basements.

REP ATHENA HOLLINS: Our e-waste statute is like woefully out of date because it was written in 2007 so a year before iPhone came out.

XAN HOLSTON: Minnesota currently defines e-waste products as things like fax machines and old-school tube televisions.

REP ATHENA HOLLINS: And doesn't include the massive amount of electronics that we have ever-present in our lives.

XAN HOLSTON: So if you don't want to just throw your old electronics in the trash, what are you supposed to do? For many, Best Buy's in-store drop-off recycling program has been the easiest and only option. The retailer says it's recycled more than 2 billion pounds of e-waste since it started the program in 2009. But last fall, environmental watchdog Basel Action Network included the retailer on its Brokers of Shame report after tracking devices it dropped for recycling and finding some were being shipped illegally to unlicensed processing sites in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Representative Hollins was one of the few politicians to publicly call out Best Buy for being attached to the report.

REP ATHENA HOLLINS: It's a perfect form of green washing to say, like, all you have to do is go to your neighborhood Best Buy, and you can just drop off these electronics, maybe pay a small fee, and then they get processed, and you don't have to think about it anymore.

XAN HOLSTON: But even advocates critical of Best Buy say the bigger issue is the system itself. Recycling electronics is complicated and often inconvenient. Dr. Roopali Phadke studies e-waste policy at Macalester College.

DR ROOPALI PHADKE: It takes a lot to make a point on properly disposing your waste. It's way easier to throw it away.

XAN HOLSTON: Dr. Phadke says Minnesota only collects about 1/5 of the electronic waste it generates. That means most devices are either sitting unused, tossed in the trash or slipping into systems that are hard to track. And even when people do recycle…

DR ROOPALI PHADKE: We don't have the infrastructure to take those materials and get them into the hands of people who can recover the metals or re-manufacture the materials. So it's like at every point in this e-waste collection and recovery system in Minnesota, we are missing investments.

XAN HOLSTON: In other words, when Minnesotans do the right thing, the system often sends that waste to Europe or Japan for processing because the US has limited capacity to extract valuable materials from electronics, especially the metals inside circuit boards. Dr. Phadke says building an effective e-waste processing system here in the US would require investment at every step, from collection to sorting to processing, but Minnesota has a chance to take charge.

DR ROOPALI PHADKE: How important it is for the state to really be a leader in developing a circular economy of metals and collection is the beginning of that.

XAN HOLSTON: Inside all those broken devices, phones, laptops and TVs are the same valuable copper, gold and rare earth elements we mined from the earth. According to a United Nations study, the average American produces around 46 pounds of e-waste a year. Marlise Riffle president of the Iron Range partnership for sustainability says 46 pounds per person in Minnesota adds up to nearly 270 million pounds a year.

MARLISE RIFFLE: There's about $3.2 billion worth of metals that could come out of everything that Minnesota generates.

XAN HOLSTON:
Riffle's group is working to build an e-waste processing center on the Iron Range, a region long defined by mining. But instead of digging into the ground, she wants to extract those materials from PCBs, the printed circuit boards of electronics already in circulation.

MARLISE RIFFLE: Mining, it is, as we know, incredibly expensive. The life of a mine is 20 years. For e-waste recycling, the international figure is 4% per year increase, which means every decade there's 40% more of it, and there's no end in sight.

XAN HOLSTON: Currently, most e-waste recyclers in the US pay to ship that material overseas to processors who break down the e-waste into different elements and metals, but they only pay out for a small number of them.

MARLISE RIFFLE: Gold, silver, platinum, palladium, sometimes copper, certainly not always.

XAN HOLSTON: Then those processors refine the metals and sell them back on the global market. Riffle says there are way more elements than that to be reclaimed and that most of the value is lost in the current system. Instead of recovering dozens of materials, recyclers are often just paid for a handful, leaving the rest behind or burned off in the process. Riffle says building the kind of system that can process those materials here will take investment, both from the public and private sector, to get facilities up and running and to make the model viable. But the payoff could be significant in multiple ways.

MARLISE RIFFLE: That means jobs, that means less burden on landfills, less burden on groundwater concerns.

XAN HOLSTON: To get there is going to require work and education, infrastructure and access, but most importantly, legislation. Representative Hollins didn't reintroduce her broader bill redefining the state's e-waste statute this session, but she does have a bipartisan bill that would create a statewide system for collecting and recycling lithium batteries, shifting responsibility to manufacturers and expanding access to drop off sites.

REP ATHENA HOLLINS: I'm under no illusions that, like, what we're doing today is going to ultimately fix this entire situation, but I do really believe that we have to start.

XAN HOLSTON: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Well, before products become e-waste and go in the trash pile, organizations across Minnesota are trying to find ways to give the old electronics and household appliances a new life. One of those groups is the Fix-It Clinic, a space where volunteers help troubleshoot and repair small household appliances, clothing, electronics, mobile devices and more. We are now joined by Nancy Lo, a waste reduction and recycling specialist with the Hennepin County Department of Environment and Energy. She helped develop the Fix-It Clinics. Thank you so much for joining us here today, Nancy.

NANCY LO: So happy to be here. Thank you.

HOST: So first walk us through what a typical fix it clinic looks like.

NANCY LO: We have monthly events in Hennepin County, move around to different cities. The Fix-It Clinics have been going for 14 years now. Sometimes we'll be in like a big gymnasium or a big church auditorium or whatever. So you'll walk in there with your broken lamp or your fan or your toaster or your vacuum cleaner, or your clothing that needs mending, check in with a volunteer, and then another volunteer will say, "Hey, everyone I have Gracie here. Her vacuum cleaner isn't sucking anymore." And then a volunteer raises their hand, and you go over with them, and you sit with them, and you work on your vacuum cleaner together. You're actively involved in, like, taking apart your vacuum cleaner, figuring out why isn't the section working. And so we do some really kind of basic repairs, and we do more sophisticated stuff with like soldering things to the motherboard, and, you know, other electronic issues like that is the benefit, also educating customers, consumers. It's so much about education and so much about awareness. Like you saw how difficult it was to get this thing apart. It was all glued together because the manufacturer had no intention of it being repairable. So you can see, here's how to make a good decision. If you are going to buy another blender, look at it. How repairable is it? And we actually have an 84% repair rate, so we are able to fix a lot of things that come in. And I think it's exponential you might bring, like your vacuum cleaner, but then you start looking at everything in your house differently after that.

HOST: So do you have the numbers? How much e-waste do these Fix-It Clinics typically prevent from going to landfills?

NANCY LO: Typically, I think we divert, probably easily 1000 to 1500 pounds. At a really big event, we'll have somewhere between 202, 150 items brought in. So that it really can add up, especially if some of the items are really heavy things. You know that normally you just be throwing them in the garbage.

HOST: Are there similar efforts in other parts of the state similar to Fix-It Clincs?

NANCY LO: Yes, very similar. There's people who focus specifically on mending or electronics, but a lot of the other counties besides Hennepin, do their own Fix-It Clinic programs. And then there's an organization called reuse Minnesota, and they are working on establishing fix it clinics in greater Minnesota, so Rochester, Stearns County, up in Duluth. So it's really starting to spread throughout Minnesota. Because, like you said, everybody buys things, everybody uses things, everybody has stuff that breaks. So the more of the state and the country that we can cover the better.

HOST: So then what do you want to say, Nancy, to the people who an object breaks in their house, and they just say, are afraid or embarrassed or just don't want to make the effort for whatever reason to come to a Fix-It Clinic?

NANCY LO: I can't persuade everyone. You know If you absolutely do not want to spend any time or any effort, you have a super busy life and you have a lot on your plate, then maybe consider borrowing items. There's tool libraries, there's toy libraries. You can borrow stuff from your neighbor, or try to make good choices and buy things that are really durable and really well made and really meant to be repaired and used for a long, long time. But if you're willing to take some time out of your weekend and come to a Fix-It Clinic, they are so fun, very satisfying, very friendly, learning, communal atmosphere, and I don't think you'll be sorry that you came. Oh, and we love having kids come too.

HOST: Well, thank you so much, Nancy, for your time.

NANCY LO: Thank you so much.

HOST: To find the Fix-It Clinic closest to you, go to our website at ampers.org and look for the link.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: After the break, a look at how non-profit organizations in the state balance their mission, operations, and finances, and things you should look for in a charity before donating your hard-earned money. This is North Star Stories, Voices from Where We Live, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

[sound element: NSS Break Music]

[NSS Promo: "North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities. Check out our other programs at AMPERS dot ORG: Minnesota Native News brings you weekly coverage of the state's Native American communities. MN90 - Minnesota History in 90 Seconds - transports you to historical moments in our state through short, engaging stories. Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is a weekly podcast featuring conversations between Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo, and Native community members. Hear more at AMPERS dot ORG."]

[NSS Break Music ends]

HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Gracie J.

In other news from across the state, state lawmakers are back at the Capitol for the second half of the legislative session. Bills still up for debate include regulation of artificial intelligence and other technology, legislation to tighten fraud oversight and human services funding and a proposal to increase the child tax credit. During the first half of this session, most proposed legislation ended up in a catch-all omnibus bill with a fate yet to be determined. However, there is one bill right now that looks like a front-runner to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support and without political gamesmanship. It's meat raffle legislation. As meat prices climb, so does the cost of running good raffles. The bill would increase the maximum raffle ticket price from two bucks to five and top prizes from $70 to two hundred.

REPRESENTATIVE JIM NASH: You plunk down a little bit of cash, you get the opportunity to see the wheel spin and you win meat. This is fantastic stuff.

HOST: If passed, the new raffle rules would go into effect August 1st.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. or SMSC, is planning prescribed burns this spring in several prairie, wetland, and oak savanna locations around its land and nearby areas. The community says prescribed fire helps native plants stay healthy, reduces invasive species and supports wildlife habitat. SMSC's Wildland Fire program will coordinate the burns with tribal, state and federal partners, and trained crews will monitor weather conditions to protect air quality and road visibility. The burns will only happen when weather conditions allow. More information and fire locations at shakopeedakota.org.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Next, nonprofit organizations across Minnesota play a key role in providing essential services, from food to support programs. But many aren't informed about the work that goes on behind the scenes. Reporter Jamad Jama helps us understand the structures that shape how nonprofits operate, manage their funds, and stay above board, so you can make the best decisions before giving charitable donations.

JAMAD JAMA: In Minnesota, some of the most important work happens quietly in a kitchen or at a doorstep.

LEAH HERBERT WELLES: We were founded in 1986 during the height of the AIDS pandemic. Over the next 40 years, that's really evolved into an organization that creates medically tailored meals for people who have life threatening and critical illnesses. My name is Leah Herbert Welles, and I am the CEO of Open Arms of Minnesota. Open Arms is a nonprofit organization that uses food as medicine, supporting people dealing with serious illnesses. Just the act of bringing somebody food and making that food available is a powerful force.

JAMAD JAMA: At Open Arms, that impact is something they think about at every step long before the meals reach someone's store.

LEAH HERBERT WELLES: It takes a lot to do what we do, but how we do it is really special. We serve about 4000 people a year, and it's about a million and a half meals. We have a kitchen in St Paul and one in Minneapolis, and every day it's filled with volunteers who are scooping meals and packaging meals, and then we have a team who go out and deliver a lot of our metro area meals.

JAMAD JAMA: Minnesota's nonprofit sector is massive, more than 10,000 financially active nonprofits employ more than 382,000 people in the state. Most of those organizations are small. About seven in 10 report less than $1 million a year in revenue. But the pressure is growing. A new 2025 sector report found 70% of Minnesota nonprofits saw demand for services rise over the past year. Eighty-two percent said expenses went up, and 35% said individual giving went down, making their work even more critical for those they serve.

LEAH HERBERT WELLES: For somebody who doesn't have access to food, it can be a life-saving or a life changing force. The statistics that we get back on impact. We can make a huge impact on weight and malnutrition and other physical things, but it's the cards and letters and phone calls from clients about the impact virtually and emotionally that are really profound.

JOHN WURM: My name is John Wurm. I'm the organizational development and engagement director at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. We provide a lot of resources and cost savings to organizations that hopefully will help them advance their mission and create a more effective impact in their communities.

JAMAD JAMA: In Minnesota, nonprofits must file with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. Federally, they file Form 990 with the IRS, disclosing revenue activities and mission.

JOHN WURM: Nonprofits have pretty strict state and federal oversight and a board of directors that really monitor their finances and make sure that they're operating above board, as it were, nonprofits currently are asked to register with state and federal agencies on an annual basis to remain active with the Secretary of State's office here in Minnesota. And then, for most nonprofits, the charitable organization annual report with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office. And then, on a federal level, every nonprofit is required to submit what's called a Form 990.

JAMAD JAMA: Greater Twin Cities United Way sees that pressure up close, helping support nonprofits across the metro. The organization says it works with partners who collectively impact more than 500,000 people a year.

SHANNON SMITH JONES: I am Shannon Smith Jones. I'm the Senior Vice President of Community Impact at Greater Twin Cities United Way. We support organizations around housing, economic opportunity, food and education. And so that's a really big piece of our work, and how it shows up every day.

JAMAD JAMA: United Way focuses on looking after these nonprofit organizations through supporting them and ensuring they stay well managed.

SHANNON SMITH JONES: We meet the immediate needs while also looking for lasting change, which means we're looking for systems change. So if a nonprofit is trying to figure out, how do I navigate this? Our program officers will sit with those nonprofits, work with them and challenge through that.

JAMAD JAMA: Nonprofits spend part of their funds on overhead costs, making sure donations sustain programs and support meaningful community work.

SHANNON SMITH JONES: Administrative costs are necessary, and sometimes need to go up. They cover website, they cover cybersecurity. Cost for staff. It's like the cost to do business. Generally, people tend to like to give to organizations that have a low administrative cost ratio, which means the dollars that are going to fund the infrastructure is lower and those dollars are going straight out to the need.

JAMAD JAMA: Groups like Candid and Charity Navigator say donors should look at impact, governance, transparency and whether the mission matches what they care about.

SHANNON SMITH JONES: I think there is multiple narratives out there around whether or not to trust the nonprofit sector. And I can assure you that no one wants to have donors put their dollars in a place where they're not going to be put to good use. I just want to appreciate the fact that they're looking to give.

JAMAD JAMA: And when donors ask where to give, Leah's answer is simple.

LEAH HERBERT WELLES: I think starting in your backyard is really great and important, and figuring out what issues are important to you. We're so lucky in Minnesota that we have so many amazing nonprofits that are doing such great work, and we can help our neighbors in really significant ways.

JAMAD JAMA: To find and learn more about nonprofits across the state, visit minnesotanonprofits.org. For North Star Stories, I'm Jamad Jama.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: The internet is changing how people use their philanthropic dollars. The creation of crowdfunding platforms like Go Fund Me is making a more personal line for donations and the people or projects that need funding. Joining us is Professor Sofia Bapna, an associate professor (with tenure) and Lawrence Fellow at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Her research interests lie in the areas of gender gaps, artificial intelligence, and education and entrepreneurship in the digital economy. Thank you so much for joining us today.

PROFESSOR SOFIA BAPNA: I'm happy to be here.

HOST: So how is crowdsourcing changing traditional donation models, and what platforms or trends show it's making it easier for individual causes to compete with big charities?

PROFESSOR SOFIA BAPNA: Crowdfunding allows individuals or companies or nonprofits to use a digital platform to reach a large number of potential contributors, and depending on the type of crowdfunding you use, there are different incentives for these people to contribute. So for example, time-related barriers, geography-related barriers and network-related barriers. If a nonprofit needs to individually go and solicit funds from each of its potential donors, then that's going to take time, right? Going and making a solicitation each time. With respect to geography, maybe there's a limitation on how many people and what geography one could reach, and the last thing would be network-related barriers, right? So a nonprofit might typically reach out to people in their network, people who have donated before, contributed before. Now there's a potential to reach anybody on that platform, so it just opens up the possibilities of donors.

HOST: How can crowdsourcing help underserved communities and minority-led initiatives get funding that they might not access through conventional channels?

PROFESSOR SOFIA BAPNA: What the research shows is for female founders, crowdfunding is really the go to place that they do as well as men, and in some cases, they actually fundraise even better than men, that is, then, male founders. Female founders fundraise better than male founders. And this is really interesting, because from conventional sources of capital, females, by conventional sources, I mean venture capital and angel funding, females tend to actually raise less capital. That's what the research tells us. The reason why women tend to do better is that there are other women who are actually supporting them on this platform. And our traditional investors, angels and VCs, they tend to be predominantly men. And these platforms allow for a diversity of contributors, and the women are actually supporting the women more, which is actually allowing them to perform better than men, and this is in research been called activism homophily. So they are women supporting women. Then just switch to race. Some of the research shows that actually African American males tend to be less likely to be funded, and their projects are viewed as lower quality than white males. Again, it's not something that I'm endorsing, but this is what the study shows.

HOST: Well, that's all the time we have. Thank you so much for joining us today.

PROFESSOR SOFIA BAPNA: Thank you for having me and happy to share my thoughts.

[sound element: NSS MUSIC TRANSITION]

HOST: Well, it's time to start making your calendars for the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

[sound element: Brad Paisley song, "She's Everything"]

HOST: The Minnesota State Fair has announced Brad Paisley, with special guest Avery Anna, for its 2026 Grandstand Concert Series. Paisley is one of country music's biggest stars, with multiple Grammys, Country Music Awards, and a long list of No. 1 hits. The show is set for Thursday, Sept. 3. The State fair starts in August. 27 and it goes through Labor Day, Sept. 7.

["She's Everything" ends]

[sound element: NSS theme music]

HOST: This is it for today's program. If you missed any part of today's newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org, or listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also get North Star Stories Daily on our website or check your favorite station's schedule. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

[sound element: NSS outro theme]

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.