Remember the days when we recycled plastic items, we always looked for the triangle with the number inside the triangle? We no longer go by those numbers and instead ask ourselves a simple question to understand if something that is plastic is recyclable in our recycling carts or community recycling drop sites. The question is, “Did this item contain food or a beverage or was it a personal care item?” If yes, we can recycle it, if no, it is probably trash.
You may be wondering why that is? With so many different packages and items made out of plastic, the reality is that most of it is NOT recyclable. Most plastic items are, indeed, trash. Why? Just like anything else that is sold to consumers, there has to be a market to sell those items to and if there isn’t a market, then it cannot be sold. This is true of recycling as well. If there isn’t a market for any given item, we do not collect it in recycling.
This is one of the problems with plastic. There really isn’t any market to sell these items to such as plastic kid’s pools, empty oil containers, plastic coolers, plastic spray containers and plastic shelving. These items, if unwanted, must go into the trash and not into recycling.
Unfortunately, the messaging that is given to consumers often times tells you that it is recyclable or it may be recyclable when in fact, it is not recyclable at all. This messaging is placed onto many plastic items including anything that comes in a plastic bag.
Minnesota has a robust recycling program and many, many markets that our recycled items are sold to are used to make new items. There is always work going on in the background at the county level or state level to find other markets for plastic items. The messaging is often falsely written on packaging which leads the consumer to purchase items that they think will be recyclable when in fact they are not. A new state law that will be in effect in the next few years, will help to alleviate the incorrect messaging on packaging.
Currently in Lyon County, the only items that we can recycle are empty food and beverage containers or personal care items. If you have recently received our 2025 recycling guide, you will note that the items listed on the “yes” side of the recycling flyer include: berry containers, butter tubs, cooking oil bottles, juice containers, milk jugs, yogurt tubs, water and soda bottles, shampoo bottles, lotion and hand-soap bottles, detergent bottles, condiment bottles, cool whip tubs, sour cream tubs, ice cream tubs, peanut butter tubs and jars and cottage cheese tubs.
These are the only items that are made from plastic that can go into recycling. No other items that are made from plastic should go into recycling. In fact, out of all of the plastic items that are made today, a whopping 94% of plastic items are never recycled because there isn’t any market to send them to.
Please be aware that when residents place things into recycling that can’t be recycled, someone has to pull them out. Quite often, items that are placed into Lyon County recycling that do not belong are pulled out when the recycling truck empties its load at the transfer station in Redwood Falls. This is also true for our drop sites.
These items are pulled out and placed into the trash at the transfer station. Redwood County does not have a landfill to deliver trash to and so they are using our landfill for their trash. Items that are pulled out of recycling at the transfer station in Redwood come back to Lyon County and are still placed into the Lyon County Landfill. For those items, a round trip of at least 60 miles or more occurs Recycling plastic items can be hard because there is so much of it. It is hard to avoid when we are trying to purchase things for our families and our homes. Plastics are everywhere! We can find them in clothing, construction, personal care items, packaging and even some food items. If consumers can use their single use plastics just one time (straws, plastic shopping bags, plastic water bottles plastic utensils) we can cut our disposable plastic use in half!
For more information on recycling or disposing items that you may no longer need or want, please call the Lyon County Environmental office at (507) 532-8210 or the Lyon County Landfill at (507) 865-4615.
