Minnesota Environmental Justice Table

04/25/2026

People's Office Hours. Every weekday. Noon. in the Hennepin County Government Center lobby/atrium.

Natasha and other hunger strikers are holding the space for transparency and authentic discussion that commissioners refuse to.

Come reinforce the demand: a vote to close the HERC trash burner as called for by the county’s own plan, and community control over what comes next.

Can't make it? Email and call the board. Already emailing? Keep going.

04/25/2026

WATCH: Leaders Across Faith Traditions Call on Hennepin County Commissioners to Come to the Table to End the Hunger Strike: "This is not only an environmental issue. It is a moral issue."

The authority exists. The Time is now. Delay = Harm

Contact your county commissioner today and tell them everyone in Minneapolis deserves the

Irene Fernando - Hennepin County Commissioner District 2
Jeffrey Lunde - Hennepin County Commissioner District 1
Marion Greene - Hennepin County Commissioner District 3
Angela Conley Hennepin County Commissioner District 4
Debbie Goettel - Hennepin County Commissioner District 5
Marion Greene - Hennepin County Commissioner District 3
Kevin Anderson - Hennepin County Commissioner District 7

04/25/2026

37 years of toxic air. ❌ No vote. ❌ No date. ❌ No plan.

Audua Pugh said it best: Three people are on hunger strike until that changes.

Read the story at Inside Climate News

04/24/2026

Hennepin County just got an "F" for particle pollution from the American Lung Association

The county owns the HERC trash burner. Official health risk estimates for HERC don't account for particle pollution at all. What we know is bad. What we're not measuring is worse. County commissioners have a moral responsibility to reduce cumulative harm of pollutants. They can schedule a closure date, but they refuse to act.

Delay = harm.

Accountability is coming.

04/22/2026

Nazir Khan, co-founder and Executive Director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, has begun a hunger strike demanding that the Hennepin County Board vote to close the HERC trash burner by December 31, 2027 and establish a community-led just transition task force toward a Zero Waste future.

For 37 years, Hennepin County has burned trash in the heart of a majority Black, redlined, and segregated community in North Minneapolis. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency confirmed on the record that HERC adds to pollution that is killing people.

District 4 Commissioner Angela Conley Hennepin County Commissioner District 4 confirmed it in a meeting with constituents. The County still has not called a vote. The county still ignores Zero Waste Experts and public health experts.

So community members are on hunger strike.

Delay is a choice. Delay = Harm.

Call the vote. End the strike.

04/22/2026

This is what community looks like.

Scientists, students, neighbors and organizers. From every part of the county and every walk of life. Singing songs, chanting, showing up together in the shadow of the HERC trash burner to say: 37 years is enough.

The data is there. The harm is documented. The only thing standing between this community and clean air is a small group of elites who decide whose neighborhood absorbs the pollution and then look the other way.

Chair Irene Fernando, Commissioner Angela Conley, Commissioner Marion Greene: you consider yourselves environmental justice champions. You can take the lead and make the right call.

That's why we're here, and why Natasha, Nazir, and Joshua are still on hunger strike.

The power to close this burner exists today. The votes exist. What's missing is the will.

We're not stopping until the board delivers:
A public vote to close the HERC trash burner by December 31, 2027. Establish a community-led just transition task force toward a zero-waste future.

12/18/2025

12/18/2025

12/16/2025

90.3 FM Twin Cities

11/06/2025

I'm sounding the alarm on Best Buy's BS. Last week, the Basel Action Network (BAN) released its landmark report “Brokers of Shame: The New Tsunami of American E-Waste Exports to Asia”, and at the center of its findings lies one of America’s best-known electronics retailers: Best Buy.

Best Buy claims that it has safely recycled over 2 billion pounds of electronic waste (e-waste) over the years, sending the electronics to partners "who either refurbish, repurpose or safely recycle the parts by removing environmentally hazardous materials and chemicals and disposing of them using the best and safest practices available."

In reality, it appears that several electronics retailers, including Best Buy, are allowing their hazardous materials to be exported to Malaysia and other countries, where it is widely known that underpaid workers dismantle toxic electronics in unsafe conditions.

Read my full release here: https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/news/15553/40989

10/16/2025

10/14/2025

📚 It’s here! The two-part comic about HERC, covering our current reality and our future.

Developed by , .ej.table, and with the help of community members sharing their experiences, visions, and feedback.

Download a digital copy at bit.ly/HERC-comics, and stay tuned for ways to get physical copies soon! ✨