Lyon County recycling update

Lyon County remains the main entity that is in charge of implementing the recycling program in Lyon County. Residents pay for recycling through a special assessment on their property taxes. If you are renting an apartment or a house, the property owner is paying that assessment.
Business recycling is handled much differently than residential recycling. Businesses who wish to recycle need to call their waste hauler to have recycling services. There is a cost that you would pay your waste hauler. Recycling is not free. Businesses who have been using the community recycling containers or cardboard containers need to please contact their waste hauler for services and stop using the residential container.
The community drop sites are meant for rural residents in particular to use because they do not have curbside services. Rural residents must haul their own recycling to these drop sites. If you are a curbside cart recycler and have extra recycling, you may also use the community drop sites.
Depending on where businesses are operating, we now have four waste haulers that can help you with recycling services: Southwest Sanitation, West Central Sanitation, Waste Management and Olson Sanitation.
Curbside recycling has been at its peak so far this summer. Lyon County has a new contracted recycling waste hauler, West Central Sanitation from Redwood Falls. This has meant some changes as to when your cart has been picked up and emptied.
Carts should be out the night before your pick up day. Please give the recycling hauler the whole day to get your cart emptied. We ask for your patience to allow them to safely get around to all of us. We currently are picking up over 6,200 carts every other week for recycling.
In addition, and proudly said, Lyon County is a big recycling county. We have a 75% set out rate, which means 3 out of 4 of us in Lyon County are setting out a cart every other week to have recycling picked up. We should all be proud of that figure!
If your recycling is not picked up, please feel free to call me the next business morning and we will make sure that your recycling cart is emptied. If you have a cart that needs attention (broken lid, cracked body, wheel broken off), please call me about those situations as well. We are happy to help and cart replacements are free.
Recycling, whether it is curbside or community roll offs, is picked up and sent to a transfer station in Redwood Falls. Lyon Counties recycling then goes on to Shakopee to a company called Dem-Con. Dem-Con then, sorts and bales all of the recycling that they receive from all over Minnesota and sells it. Dem-Con sets the guidelines on what they want for recycled materials. If it is not on their list, recyclers in Lyon County cannot accept it.
Please stick to our recycling guide on what can be recycled. To break it down to the most simplest form, recycling can be any kind of paper but not shredded, cardboard, and empty food containers (aluminum cans, steel/tin cans, glass, food and beverage cartons, paperboard (ex. Macaroni boxes) and kitchen, laundry and bath bottles and containers for plastics. Plastic resin codes 1, 2 and 5 are the plastic items that we can recycle. No other plastics are allowed. A question to ask yourself “Is this a food container?” If yes, it more than likely can be recycled. If no, then it probably cannot be recycled and is trash.
Any other kind of materials but especially plastic and metal items are quite often trash. This past month the following items have been placed into recycling that are not accepted: pet food bags, diapers, grills, clothes hangers, solar salt bags, plastic shopping bags, plastic siding, stuffed animals, small appliances, plastic flower pots, bike parts, plastic hose reel and parts of a canner. Many of these items end up in recycling because of “wishcycling”-wishing or hoping that they are recyclable-generally they are not.
The recycling logo on plastic is not really a recycling logo. Please do not go by this emblem. This logo with the number inside the triangle actually reflects what kind of plastic that particular item is made out of. If we stick to kitchen, laundry and bath bottles and containers, we will be recycling the correct plastic items.
Residents can find our recycling guide online at www.lyonco.org or call the Environmental office for assistance at (507) 532-8210.