Lyon County residents continue to strive toward understanding where to dispose of things that they no longer want or need. As the saying goes, “there is a cost to everything” and this is certainly true of even waste disposal. When we purchase anything, it is up to us to take the responsibility to know that when we are done using something that we may need to pay for it to be disposed of in a proper manner. We accept this with our regular trash services and it is something we need to consider for other items as well such as televisions, mattresses and furniture.

As we are spring cleaning, moving or just tidying up our homes, it is important to understand that as we are planning for these activities that we don’t need to get rid of everything in one day. It can be a process where over several weeks, days or even several months that the items residents no longer want or need can be disposed of in a proper way. This will help spread out the cost of disposal as well.

In order to help residents, the spring newsletter coming out will help you determine where some of the more popular items that need disposing should go. If you can’t find where to dispose of something either in our newsletters or on the Lyon County website, please call us. We help hundreds of residents every week with their disposal needs.

We also will give you information on other alternative ways to dispose of items. We have not talked a whole lot about reducing and reusing but soon we will start getting more information out to residents about these two very important parts of learning how to control what we have in our homes. We continue to share information on the Lyon County Facebook page and in our newsletters as well as the information we place in the newspapers. So, for the purpose of this spring there are three things to share with you.

The first is that the County Fair community recycling and cardboard recycling containers are all now in a parking lot at the Lyon County Fairgrounds (504 Fairgrounds Road). It seems that so far most people have been able to locate them easily. We thank the Carr Family for generously allowing us to keep a recycling location on their property at County Fair. Lyon County has community recycling roll offs in all of the communities in Lyon County. Information can be located online, on the Lyon County website.

The second bit of information to share with you is that on May 1, West Central Sanitation will take over the curbside recycling pickup. Your curbside recycling will be picked up on the same day as it has been in the past. The one difference is that you may note a difference in the time it is picked up. Please remember to have your carts out the night before your recycling is picked up so you are not missed. If your cart was missed, please wait until 1 p.m. that same day to call us to let us know that your cart was missed. The phone number to call is (507) 532-8210.

The third piece of information to share with you is that along with other residents in Minnesota, Lyon County will be participating in a Reduce Your Wasted Food Challenge starting May 5. This is a 5 week program that residents do at home. The challenge will guide participants through how to track wasted food, prevent waste and save money. Residents will be given tools each week to help with storage, planning, shopping and cooking.

Let’s be honest with our food waste — Lyon County’s current rate of food waste is about 22%. Please sign up for our new program about reducing food waste at home by going to the following website: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/living-green/reduce-your-wasted-food-challenge. Join the Lyon County team!

For more information on reducing, reusing and recycling, please call the Environmental Department at (507) 532-8210. The Lyon County Landfill can be reached at (507)865-4615.