One-Sort Recycling Collection
Recycling Service:
- Recycling is collected every other week. The maximum weight for the 96-gallon large one-sort cart and its contents is 200 pounds.
- Your recycling cart must be at your collection point, at the alley or curb line, by 6 a.m. on your collection day each recycling week. To sign up to receive email reminders to place your recycling out at your collection point, visit our Find Your Recycling Day webpage.
- Customers are provided with a recycling cart, either a small or a large cart. City crews deliver and maintain all carts. If your cart is damaged, call Solid Waste & Recycling at (612) 673-2917 to request for your cart to be repaired.
- Occasional extra recyclables may be placed next to the recycling cart in a cardboard box or in paper bags. Do not stuff cardboard into the cart so that it will not come out easily when the cart is tipped. Cardboard placed outside the cart should be bundled with string or twine. Bundles or boxes may not weigh more than 40 pounds. If you consistently have extra recycling, an extra cart will be assigned to your household. You may also call Solid Waste & Recycling at (612) 673-2917 to request an additional recycling cart at no charge.
- Your collection day is assigned by the Solid Waste & Recycling Division. Routes are created so the Division operates in the most cost-effective way. Look up your collection day.
- In the winter, remember to shovel a 3 foot wide path to your cart, including snow left by the plow. See Snow Shoveling for specific shoveling requirements.
What can I recycle?
Español, Hmoob, Somaaliga
Batteries
Put in clear plastic bag and place on top of your recycling cart. Tape the positive (+) terminal of lithium and lithium-ion batteries to prevent fires.
Do not place the following items in your recycling cart:
- Plastic bags
- Scrap metal (pots and pans, pipes, poles, toasters, chairs, scooters)
- Electronics
- Clothes hangers (metal, plastic or wood)
- Garden hoses
- Children's toys
- Syringes
- Styrofoam(TM)
- Garbage
For more detailed information on paper and container recycling, visit the following pages:
Paper Recycling
Food, Beverage & Other Container Recycling
How to Prepare Your Recycling
One-sort makes recycling easier! Simply rinse your containers and place all recyclables loose or in paper bags in your one-sort cart. Do not place plastic bags in your recycling cart. You may collect your recycling in plastic bags, but you must dump the recyclables out of the plastic bag into the cart and place the plastic bag in the garbage or bring it to a second hand store for reuse or a participating grocery store for recycling. You may also collect your recycling in a reusable bag and empty the contents into your one-sort cart for collection. Click here for a PDF version of the recycling guide.
Plastic Bag Recycling at Participating Drop-Off Locations: Clean and dry plastic bags and films (that are stretchy) can be brought to participating grocery and retail stores for recycling. Plastic films include: bread bags, plastic wrap from around cases of water, toilet paper and paper towel, zipper snack and sandwich bags (remove the zipper part). Plastic films that cannot be recycled at participating drop-off locations include: cracker bags, chip bags, and other films that do not stretch or are dirty. Plastic bags or plastic film may not be placed in One-Sort Recycling carts.
Solid Waste & Recycling completed a citywide educational tag on all customer’s One-Sort recycling carts in October 2015. The goal of the educational tag was to remind residents that plastic bags and film are not accepted in the recycling program. Recycling should be placed loose in One-Sort recycling carts. Plastic bags and film get caught in the gears at the recycling facility resulting in the facility shutting down for several hours a day to remove plastic bags and films from the gears.
Home container labels
Label containers in your home so family, friends and guests know how to properly sort their waste. Stickers are available for your interior recycling, organics recycling, and trash containers located throughout your house. To order stickers to help improve your home collection system, call Solid Waste & Recycling at 612-673-2917 or email your request including the number of each type of stickers you want to [email protected].
Old Blue and Green Recycling Bins
Residents were encouraged to keep their curbside recycling bins and reuse them for an alternative purpose such as storing toys or lawn care supplies. Do not store any bins that you want to keep at your collection point. Any old bins left at your collection area will be collected by City crews for recycling and cannot be returned.
Educational Tag
Our crews cannot pick up your recycling if there is a problem with it. Unacceptable recycling will be marked with a recycling educational tag. If you find a tag, please read it over to understand what the issue with the recycling is, correct the problem, and place your recycling out on your next recycling day.
Some reasons why your recycling may not be picked up include:
- Non-recyclable materials such as garbage and plastic bags were found in the recycling cart.
- Recyclables were contaminated: items must be rinsed before placed in the one-sort cart.
- Recycling cart was not shoveled and free from snow and ice.
- Recycling was not at the pickup area, next to the garbage cart.
- Recycling was not out for pickup on the correct recycling week.
- Recycling cart weighed over 200 pounds
If your recycling cart was removed for contamination, call our office in three months and it will be returned to you at no charge. Collection crews will pick up properly prepared recyclables set out in paper bags or cardboard boxes on your recycling day. There will be a $15 fee to have your cart returned before the three month holding period. To have your cart returned, fill out our Add, Remove, Return or Exchange Cart Form and email it to our office at [email protected] or fax it to 612-673-2250.
Collection Time
Your recycling will be picked up at any time starting at 6 a.m. on your collection day. You may notice your recycling is collected at about the same time every other week. Please understand that changes in weather conditions, crew assignments and equipment problems can change your pickup to earlier or later in the day. Please make sure your recycling is always out by 6 a.m. on your collection day.
Missed Recycling
If you do not find an educational tag and you believe your recycling was missed, please wait until after 3:30 p.m. on the day of pickup before calling Solid Waste & Recycling at (612) 673-2917. Sorry, but we will not return for recycling if your cart was not out on time.
Holiday Schedule
When your collection day falls on or after a holiday, recycling collection will be one day later than normal. See the Holiday Schedule for more information.
Report Misuse of Recycling Service
Recycling collection is a special service to our paying customers only. Taking or using another resident's collection point or cart is illegal. City Ordinance 225.10 states in part: "No person shall leave, throw, or deposit, or use or permit any other person to leave, place, throw, or deposit, any substances or materials of any kind at a city solid waste collection point for city disposal when the substances or materials were generated at a location other than the residence."
If you have any additional questions, please call Solid Waste & Recycling at 612-673-2917 or by emailing [email protected].
Last updated Jan 29, 2018
