I have this Post-It note on my desk with a single sentence on it. It says, “What you put in your cart matters!” While, this note in my world primarily reflects on mainly recycling, it to some degree reflects as a reminder about a few waste (trash) disposal choices too.

As the season changes, many yards are cluttered with tree branches, leaves, pumpkins and corn stalks. For those who live in rural areas, managing yard waste is straightforward. However, for those who live within city limits, the struggle to find a location to take these items to for appropriate disposal may be confusing. You will find that most cities have a yard waste collection site. If you are not familiar with where it is, please call your city office for details. The place that these items do not belong is in your trash cart or recycling cart.

“What you put in your cart matters!” also can pertain to what you may be placing into the local recycling dropsites or your recycling cart. Recently, Lyon County residents attempted to recycle items such as trampolines, car doors, tents tarps and an array of plastic flowerpots. Unfortunately, none of these items belongs in recycling bins of any kind. Metal parts should be taken to either Alter Metal in Marshall or to the Lyon County Landfill designated metal collection container. There is no charge to place metal items into the landfill metal collection container and Alter Metal just may pay you a little something for certain items. As always, call ahead to our recycling partners to double check on what they do or do not take.

A reminder that recycling is not the catchall for unwanted items; it is reserved for materials such as paper (excluding books and shredded paper), flattened cardboard, and clean, empty food containers. The staffing levels that we have in our Household Hazardous Waste facility and Recycling department amounts to four individuals. Rectifying recycling errors can be time consuming for the department staff.

As the year comes to a close, the Environmental Department will be distributing two items to you in the mail very soon. The first, which will be coming out in November, is a flyer that focuses mainly on holiday item recycling, disposal regarding what is, and what is not recyclable when it comes to holiday decorations, wrapping paper and much more. The second item that will be coming out in December will be the 2026 Curbside recycling calendar. New! The curbside calendar will now come with a QR Code that will lead you to the online Lyon County recycling page.

As a friendly reminder and to kick off the season, Christmas wrapping paper is not recyclable. We ask kindly that residents please throw away their own non-recyclable items in your own trash to allow staff to better handle the extra recycling that does come in between Nov. 15 and Jan. 15.

If residents have extra items that they need to throw away that are not accepted into recycling and do not have the room in their trash cart, residents can self-haul to the landfill for an extra fee or call your waste (trash) hauler for assistance.

In addition: phone calls have been ticking up about what to do with unused, unwanted over the counter medications and prescriptions. In Lyon County, we have four options: the sheriff’s office/police station in Marshall, Hy-Vee Pharmacy in Marshall, City Hall in Minneota, and the Tracy Police Station in Tracy. If you are not sure what items these places will accept, please call them. Please do not take these items to our area thrift stores, the Household Hazardous Waste Facility or flush them. These police department take these items free of charge. We need to work together to keep our communities safe from unused medications and we need to work together to make sure that these items do not get into our waterways or drinking supplies.

Full sharps (needles) containers can come to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility free of charge. Sharps (needles) must be in an approved red sharps container due to Department of Transportation regulations. Local pharmacies, the Household Hazardous Waste Facility as well as online stores all sell the red sharps containers, often for a low fee.

We welcome your phone calls or email questions about recycling and waste disposal. To reach us, please call the Lyon County Environmental Department at (507) 532-8210, the Lyon County Landfill at (507) 865-4615 or our general email is lyonenvironmental@co.lyon.mn.us.