Recycle Right Lyon County! We know that at times, recycling can be somewhat confusing. We are here to help answer your questions and smooth the way so that all of us can Recycle Right!

Lyon County Environmental office is responsible for recycling in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties. How does recycling work? The Environmental office brings bids to the respective county commissioners who determine what waste hauler will be hired through a contract for picking up curbside recycling services. We are currently in a five-year contract for recycling pick up and hauling with West Central Sanitation.

The Environmental office is not responsible for trash pickup. Residents may find that either this is taken care of through contracted work through your city or residents may be responsible for purchasing their own trash services. Waste haulers do not arrange for residential recycling and the Environmental office does not arrange for trash services. Waste haulers can be contacted concerning commercial recycling.

Recycling is not free. Recycling is paid through a special assessment through property taxes. This is why you will never see a bill in the mail from the county! Businesses do not pay this special assessment and this is why businesses who wish to recycle must call a waste hauler of their choice in order to make arrangements for commercial recycling.

In Lyon County, county staff maintain the drop sites. Curbside recycling as well as drop site recycling in Lyon County is hauled to the transfer station in Redwood Falls and from there it is hauled to Dem-Con in Shakopee. When curbside recycling is picked up and the recycling truck is full, they will have to travel to Redwood Falls to empty the truck and then return to the city where the truck was picking up the recycling.

Recycled items have pretty much remained the same over many, many years. We sometimes can be confused about plastic recycling in particular. Recycling is all about paper, cardboard and empty clean food containers. Recyclers can ask themselves is this item made out of one of these three things. If yes, then it can be recycled.

Here are a couple of examples: is this empty plastic shopping bag, mulch bag, plastic kid’s pool, plastic empty oil container recyclable? Is it an empty clean food container? In this case, no. None of these items are an empty, clean food container. Is this clothes hanger, car part, cat food/dog food bag an empty clean food container? No, these items are all trash only.

Recycling does not need to be crushed. It does not need to have labels or caps removed. These can stay on the containers.

Curbside recycling is picked up every other week. Lyon County has two sizes of recycling carts that are available. 65-gallon carts and 95-gallon carts. The recycling hauler follows a weekly route that covers all of the cities within the county. Residents may see the recycling hauler travel down one side of a street only to return to pick up on the other side of the street later in the day. They do not turn around at the end of a street to pick up recycling on the other side but they follow a predetermined route instead.

Recycling is not garbage. Lyon County does not provide trash dumpsters for residents to use. Residents can self-haul to the landfill if needed or call a waste hauler concerning any extra trash you may have. A trash truck may pick it up but once it is collected as recycling, it is against the law to deposit recycling into the landfill. Rural residents can have trash collection service too!

Remember to keep your cart 3 feet away from other objects on pick up day. Recycling carts are the property of Lyon County. If your cart has a broken lid, missing a wheel or the body is cracked, please call us. If you want a larger cart, please call us to have it switched out. There is no additional cost for a larger cart. There are recycling carts that may say Waste Management or Lyon County on them. The Waste Management carts were purchase many years ago to use as recycling carts in the county. Your recycling cart should have a yellow lid and a green body.

Give the hauler all day to get around to the various cities they are going to each recycling week. If your cart was missed, please call us the next business day to have your cart picked up. It is very important to have your cart out the night before as recycling pickup schedules may change on that day. They may come earlier than usual, for example. The number one reason why your recycling may have been missed is because it was not out the night before. Recycling pickup often starts at 3:30 in the morning!

Drop site recycling containers are also hauled to Redwood Falls when they are full. They are not hauled until they are full. They are checked weekly and how quickly they fill is very dependent on the public’s use of the containers any given week. If you should have any questions, please feel free to call us at the Environmental office at (507) 532-1307 or go to https://www.lyonco.org/departments/environmental/residential-recycling