This is not an accident. It is a policy choice. The harm is concentrated in Black, Brown, and working-class communities — and it is preventable.
Hennepin Co. can initiate HERC's closure right now.
Delay = Harm.
The time is now. Sign the petition: bit.ly/dontburntrash
#FreedomToBreathe #mnleg
🧵 Hunter is a former #mnleg Rep, cancer survivor, and 3rd-year med student. His clinic sits just miles from HERC— where children are sent to the ER for asthma at the highest rate in Minnesota. Surrounding wealthier neighborhoods send their trash here and bear none of the burden. (1/2)...
When HERC closes, we use the money wasted on it to build something better — composting, green jobs, reuse hubs — a regenerative future that invests in and takes direction from the neighborhoods that have borne this burden the longest.
Now is the time. Close HERC: bit.ly/dontburntrash
Every person deserves the #freedomobreathe clean air. No community should be treated as a sacrifice zone.
The people living in the shadow of this facility are paying for it with their health. The County Board has the authority to close HERC. They can call a vote today.
The HERC trash burner was never meant to last this long. It's he kind we've been shutting down when it comes to coal plants. To make the same amount of energy as a coal plant, a trash incinerator releases 28 times as much dioxin, 6-14 times as much mercury, and nearly six times as much lead. #mpls
The Board has the authority to close HERC right now. No new legislation required. Just a vote.
The harm is preventable. The authority exists. The time is now. Join us: bit.ly/endtrashburn...
#FreedomToBreathe #environment
....into a Black and working-class neighborhood where children go to the ER for asthma at the highest rate in the state. Every person deserves clean air regardless of their zip code or income. No community should be treated as a sacrifice zone....
Hennepin County is burning millions of taxpayer dollars to keep a trash incinerator running that was supposed to close in 2009. The HERC is now losing millions each year, and in 2024 was strapped with $37 million in debt — all while releasing lead, mercury, and dioxins...(1/3)
(3/3) Closing HERC is about transitioning to a real zero-waste future — reducing waste, expanding composting, increasing recycling, and ending the concentration of harm in the same communities.
We can move beyond both landfills and incinerators. Join the fight: bit.ly/endtrashburn...
(2/3) Meanwhile, the air pollution from incineration is concentrated in BIPOC and working-class communities that have already carried the burden for decades. Incineration doesn’t eliminate landfills. It adds toxic air pollution on top of them.
When you burn trash, it doesn’t disappear. It turns into toxic ash — and that ash still goes to an industrial landfill located a short walk from the Mississippi river in Rosemount. (1/3)
#FreedomToBreathe #Minneapolis #mpls #environmentaljustice
(3/3) Delay is not neutral. Every day HERC operates, exposure continues. The County has the authority to act. The time is now!
(2/3) Rev. Dr. Billy Charvez Russell of Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist reminded us that for decades, trash has been burned in the heart of predominantly BIPOC and working-class communities — not by accident, but as the result of policy decisions about whose neighborhoods carry the burden
Grateful to Rev. Alfred Babington-Johnson for inviting the Zero Burn Coalition to join this important gathering of faith leaders at Shiloh Temple International Ministries. where we shared info about the ongoing harm caused by Henn. Co's garbage burner in North Minneapolis. 🧵 (1/3)...
(3/3) May this month bring renewal, courage, and collective strength. May it nourish the work of building a future rooted in justice, where no community is sacrificed and every child can grow up breathing clean air.
Ramadan Mubarak to all who observe.
In neighborhoods like North Minneapolis, where families continue to carry the burden of industrial pollution, the call for clean air and accountability is not abstract.
It is about health. It is about dignity. It is about the #FreedomToBreathe (2/3)
As this sacred month begins, we send love and solidarity to everyone observing across #Minneapolis and beyond.
Ramadan is a time of discipline, reflection, and deep care for community — values that also ground the fight for environmental justice. (1/3)
(3/3) The County has the authority to act — and keeps making flimsy excuses.
Delay is not neutral.
We honor his legacy by fighting to ensure the community has a real seat at the table to shut down HERC.
Rest in power.
ZIP code 55411 — located near the incinerator — has the highest asthma rate in the state, even compared to areas with similar highway density. (2/3)
Rev. Jesse Jackson taught us that environmental justice is civil rights in our time.
For decades, toxins from the HERC have filled the lungs of Northsiders and surrounding communities. 🧵(1/3)
#minneapolis #ShutDownHerc
Stop HERC let MPLS Breathe logo
🧠 Learn the facts.
♻️ Share the truth.
📣 Demand a closure date and community-led just transition to a zero-waste future.
🔗 hercshutdown.org
Trash Incineration • Emits pollutants linked to asthma, heart disease, and cancer • Concentrates harm in low-income and BIPOC neighborhoods • Sends toxic ash to landfills anyway • Loses millions of public dollars every year Below: Pam Bondi Meme THE DOW IS OVER 50,000 IT says " Hennepin County" over Bondi
Now is the moment to make sure everyone in #MPLS has the #FreedomToBreathe.
For 36 years, community has spoken out as the HERC incinerator, run by Hennepin County, has burned thousands of tons of trash in the heart of our city — concentrating pollution in low-income and BIPOC neighborhoods....(1/2)
Valentines card theme: You're the only thing that should take my breath away, not toxic trash incineration. To: From: There s a colorized photo of the HERC trash incinerator with smoke billowing out.
For too many families in MPLS, it’s not love in the air — it’s toxic air. Every day the HERC trash incinerator operates, toxic emissions fill tour lungs. It’s time to end trash incineration and build a zero-waste future where everyone has the #FreedomToBreathe
(3/3) Claiming otherwise shows how much you have ignored years of letters, testimony, and meetings — and our vision for a just transition to a zero waste future.
Meet the demands, or the hunger strike moves forward.
(2/3) We are not seeking your support for the hunger strike. We are seeking your support to deliver on your promise to begin closing HERC, and the hunger strike is a result of your lack of action to stop multiple deaths a year and generations of ailments caused by HERC.
Hunger Strike to Commence I am disgusted by the lack of action and transparency from the county. The people have been clear that we want the HERC incinerator shut down and we have not been listened to. That’s why some of us have made the difficult decision to engage in a hunger strike. Julian Pone, District 4 1. Start closure of herc trash burner 2. Agree to a community led transition process 3. Ensure accountability and transparency Collage of zero burn coalition members. A logo with HERC crossed out by a knife and a fork. Another logo "Time is up Hennepin" Shut it down. Zero Burn Coalition logo.
Here’s what we’ve recently heard from the Hennepin County board:
- They do not support our hunger strike.
- They do not support the immediate shutdown of the HERC.
Let’s be clear: this is an admission that they are ignoring us....(1/3) #ShutDownHERC #FreedomToBreathe
(5/5) We call on county commissioners to work with community and take action.
Set a date.
SHUT IT DOWN.
ICE OUT. HERC OUT.
(4/5) We have no reprieve.
That is why community members are prepared to put their bodies on the line through a hunger strike — not because we want to, but because delay is treated as reasonable while harm is constant.
3/5 That logic is unacceptable.
Our communities do not get to pause one harm because another is happening. We are being told to wait while neighbors shelter in place under ICE occupation — and at the same time breathe air polluted by burned garbage from the HERC.
(2/5) This week, coalition members testified at the Hennepin County Board after commissioners suggested that now is not the time to focus on closing the HERC because ICE activity is harming our communities.
