Minnesota as a whole has a very robust recycling program. Recycling provides 37,000 jobs in Minnesota, which are either directly or indirectly associated with recycling. Minnesota recycling programs take in around 200 million tons of recycling each year and more than 100 companies use these recyclables. These companies use these recyclables in their products.

A recycling myth is that the recycling logo is regulated. In fact, the recycling symbol and any other information regarding recycling that is on any given package is not regulated at this time. This is why it is important to disregard what any given bag or package tells you about whether it is recyclable or not and stick with our guide.

What can we recycle? We broke our recycling guide down to three steps. Is it paper? Is it cardboard? Or is it a clean, empty, food container? If you answered yes to any of these three questions, then it should be recyclable in our program. If you answered no and despite whatever the package may be telling you, it is more than likely trash. We can also take personal care items such as plastic shampoo bottles or laundry detergent. We do not take any empty chemical containers.

Does Lyon County does have other recycling programs? Yes! We recycle items such as car seats, mattress/box spring recycling, household chemicals and paint, rigid Styrofoam, shredded paper, Christmas lights, and cords, hard-covered books, electronics, fluorescent bulbs, ballasts and farm chemical pesticides/herbicides. These mentioned items are not allowed in your recycling cart or drop site but need to be brought to the Household Hazardous Waste facility. This facility is serving as our intake facility for these other types of recycled items.

Where does recycling go once it has been picked up at the curb or dropped off at the community recycling drop sites? The county contracts with a recycling hauler who is responsible for picking up the curbside recycling every other week and they also pick up the cardboard recycling containers that are located at several of the community recycling drop sites. Lyon County has its own recycling driver who is responsible for picking up and emptying the community recycling drop site containers. The recycling that residents in Lyon County collect whether curbside or drop site is hauled to a transfer station in Redwood Falls and from there, it is transported to Dem-Con in Shakopee.

Why does it take so long for recycling to be picked up? If you are a curbside recycler, you may see the recycling truck on the opposite side of the street picking up your neighbor’s recycling. Because the recycling driver follows a route and with the truck’s equipment being on only one side of the truck, they may not come back to your side of the street until sometime later. If the truck is full of recycling, the recycling hauler must pull off the route and drive to Redwood Falls to empty the truck and then come back to get back on route again.

We encourage all curbside recyclers to put their cart out the night before and leave their cart out all day or until it has been emptied. Recycling pick-up starts at 3 a.m. and will go until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. depending on how much recycling they are picking up. We do not assign specific times to each resident’s home. If you bring your cart back up to your house before the cart is emptied, it will be missed.

We currently have around 7,200 curbside recycling stops to make each recycling week!

Community recycling drop sites are meant for those residents who are living in apartments or who live in the country. A good way to bring recycling to these drop sites is in a tote or box. Please do not bag your recycling. Bagged recycling will be thrown away because we often cannot tell if it is trash or recycling. These community drop sites are emptied when they are full to the peak of the container. These are also hauled to the transfer station in Redwood Falls.

These containers, in the past, were used as dumping grounds for trash or other unwanted items. Things have improved with residents help. Please place only paper, cardboard (if cardboard containers are not available in your location), and empty food containers in these containers. We can also place empty personal care items in these containers such as empty shampoo bottles and laundry detergent bottles.

Thank you for recycling this past year! We appreciate everyone’s hard work to make this program successful! If you should have questions about disposal or recycling, please call the Lyon County Environmental Department at (507) 532-8210.