Thank you Lyon County for all of the hard work you have been doing by disposing the things you no longer want or need in the right place! We have been working hard on educating residents on how and where to dispose of items and we appreciate your help in getting items in the right place!

The month of July has been a busy time for school tours or camp tours to the landfill. For the past few years, we have been able to take children out to the landfill so that they can experience where “away” is. To explain, when we throw something out, we often say we are “throwing it away.” Away is the landfill.

For most people, we don’t often think about “away.” When our trash cart is picked up and emptied at the curb or from our property, it is hauled to the Lyon County Landfill. In the past, trash was disposed of in a hole that was dug into the ground and trash was “dumped.” This is why some folks still call it the “dump.” Many years ago, rules and regulations have predominated how landfills can be built and maintained. This, along with the waste haulers that we have in our area, we often don’t give our trash much thought. We throw something “away” and never think about it again.

Times are changing. Many consumers are starting to think more broadly about trash in a larger sense such as: if I purchase this item, how long will it last and what will I do with it once I no longer want or need it? We are starting to think in larger terms about where our things we purchase come from and what it took to get that item on the shelf. In particular, when the economy is tough like it is now, we spend time asking ourselves if we really need that item.

Any given item that we purchase has a whole backstory concerning its production from where the materials are coming from to make any given item, to how it is produced, to how it gets from the manufacturing plant, to the store, to our own consumption of the item and its final disposal when are done using it.

Generally speaking, we throw away approximately 4 pounds of trash each day per person in the United States. Lyon County is certainly in that same ballpark figure. We are each throwing approximately 120 pounds of trash away a month. Approximately, in Lyon County, a quarter of this number is wasted food or items such as banana peels or potato peelings. We can reduce our waste by simply composting food items (if you can) such as banana peels or potato peelings and also make sure to eat all of the food we purchase. If you have leftovers that can’t be finished, mark the container with a date and what is inside the container and place it into the freezer for later use will also help in the battle against wasted food.

The amount of recycling that has been collected the past two months has increased quite a bit from earlier this year and that is good news too! We need to remind ourselves that shredded paper and Styrofoam are not accepted in our curbside carts and the community drop sites. We also should not be bagging our recycling! Bagged recycling is sometimes mistaken for trash and we want to make sure that your recycling goes to the right place!

As we move into fair season, please note that the community recycling bins and the cardboard bins located at the fairgrounds will be temporarily removed during the Lyon County Fair. They will be removed from the parking lot on Aug. 8 and returned after 8 a.m. on Aug. 15. Residents can use the Lynd, Ghent or Minneota community recycling bins if necessary.

For more information, please call the Environmental office at (507) 532-8210 or the Lyon County Landfill at (507) 865-4615.