lyon county recycling coordinator
Batteries seem so innocent but yet, they can cause some pretty hazardous situations not only at home but also with our trash and recycling. Recently, we have had some issues surrounding battery packs that are made available to the public to purchase. These battery packs can break open and can cause fires if they are thrown away.
It is important to note that batteries that are rechargeable are becoming so common that as residents, we need to be careful on watching for those items that they may be used in. Rechargeable batteries can come from the tiny AAA lithium batteries all the way up to the lead acid tractor batteries.
Outside of alkaline batteries, all other batteries should be brought to a facility that can handle their disposal. Please, please do not place rechargeable batteries into recycling or the trash thinking that someone else will pull them out of these places. We are asking residents to please bring them to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility in your area. In Lyon County, the facility is located at the fairgrounds. It is free to bring them to us.
In particular, watch for items such as ride on toys, hover boards and electronics, which all have rechargeable batteries in them. These items need to have the batteries removed before throwing them away and electronics should always come to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility for disposal.
Damaged rechargeable batteries should be brought to the Household Hazardous Waste facility as soon as possible. If you have this situation at home, place the item or battery into a metal pail with kitty litter and cover it. Do not cover it with water and do not leave it inside your home.
If you are not sure if you have a rechargeable battery or a single use battery such as an alkaline battery, please bring it to the facility and we will gladly help you determine what exactly you have.
Another hazardous situation that we have been seeing a lot of lately is residents trying to recycle chemical jugs like Roundup or household cleaners, RV fluid containers or empty oil jugs. Even though ALL of these items are made from plastic, not one of these types of items are recyclable. If you have an empty container that is plastic that used to hold chemicals or oil, please throw them away.
If these types of containers still have liquids in them, these should be brought to the HHW facility for free. It is not about the containers as much as it is about these items being in liquid form that we are trying to keep these certain liquid items out of the landfill. This helps to protect groundwater from contamination.
Moreover, yes, we are keenly aware of the disappointment that we all share that not all plastic is recyclable. Remember, please, that it has to do with available markets to sell these items too. No market, no collection of these items.
Have rigid Styrofoam? Would you like to recycle it for free? We have a program for rigid Styrofoam but residents or businesses must bring it inside the Household Hazardous Waste facility for recycling. It is not recyclable in our drop sites or in our curbside bins. If you would like to dispose of Styrofoam, you have two options.
The first is that if you wish to, you can throw it away or recycle it. We do not pull it out of curbside carts or out of community recycling drop sites for recycling because recycling is hauled to a transfer station in Redwood Falls.
Curbside recycling and dropsite recycling is then hauled to Shakopee to a company called Dem-Con. Dem-Con sorts our recycling into different recycling groups such as paper, cardboard, plastic or aluminum. They have their own markets that they sell these baled up items to in which either it is turned back into the original containers or it is made into something new once again.
The question of the week comes from many of our newer residents moving into the area: how do I pay for recycling? Recycling is paid through a special assessment on property taxes. This assessment is given to all residential homes whether you live in the country or within city limits.
For more details on any of this information, please call the Lyon County Environmental Department at (507) 5328210 or the Lyon County Landfill at (507) 865-4615.
