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Minnesota is generating more waste every year, and has set a big goal to increase recycling. The state’s pollution control agency said in a 2023 report the combined organics and recycling rate is 45.3 percent. They want to increase that rate to 75 percent for recycling by 2030. Minnesota officials say around two-thirds of waste headed to landfills and trash burners could have been composted, reused or recycled.
For some residents, it’s just a matter of not knowing how to properly navigate the recycling process.
MPR News has gathered general information from recycling guides across the state and put them in one place. It’s important to note that you should always consult recycling guides from your city, township, county, recycler or waste management company because local rules vary.
What items go in my recycling bin?
Mixed paper: Mail, office paper, newspaper inserts, magazines, catalogs, phone books
Flattened cardboard boxes and paperboard (such as cereal, cracker, gift boxes)
Milk, juice, soup, broth and wine cartons
#1, #2, or #5 plastics. This includes water or soda bottles, milk jugs, detergent bottles, shampoo or lotion bottles, yogurt tubs, takeout containers or produce tubs
Emptied and rinsed food and beverage glass bottles and jars
Aluminum, tin and steel food or beverage cans. Aluminum foil, trays, pie pins and decorative tins are also accepted. Make sure can lids are still attached and not sticking out.
What does not belong in my recycling bin?
#3, #4, #6 or #7 plastics. This includes black plastics, foam, film, bubble wrap
Large plastic items such as laundry baskets, storage bins, lawn furniture, plastic toys
Shiny or glittery gift wrap
Microwavable food trays
Single-use plastic utensils and straws
Plastic bags
“Plastic bags are a huge problem. They get tangled in the equipment and cause two to three hours of downtime a day just to cut them out,” said Susan Heffron, recycling market development coordinator at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
To recycle your plastic bags, you can take them to collection bins at stores like Cub Foods, Goodwill, JCPenney, Lunds & Byerlys, Kohl’s, Kowalski’s Markets, Target, Walmart and metro area food co-ops.
Other non-curbside items include:
Shredded paper, napkins, tissue, paper towels and paper plates or cups
Needles and sharps
Items that are smaller than your fist, which can slip through and contaminate other recyclables at the processing stage
Ceramics, dishware, window glass, mirrors, tempered glass
Pressurized tanks and cylinders. It is illegal to put propane tanks, helium tanks and other pressurized tanks in your home’s recycling bin or trashcan.
Electronics, cords, hoses, string lights, batteries, diapers, wood, textiles or propellant cylinders
Pots, pans, pipes, and hangers.
“We only want glass that held food or beverages. No ceramics, light bulbs, or dinner plates,” said Heffron. “Scrap metal and pots and pans may seem okay, but they can damage equipment. Same with propane tanks, garden hoses, and holiday lights — we call those tanglers.”
To give metal items a better chance of being repurposed, take them to your local scrap recycler. To develop a recycling habit, experts suggest beginning with a few items that you use most often.
“Start simple,” said Michael Bennett, executive director of the Recycling Association of Minnesota. ”Dump those cans and bottles into your bin. Keep plastic bags out of the bin, period, because it just causes a nightmare.”
What do the numbers on plastic containers mean?
On the back of almost all plastic containers you’ll find an arrowed recycling symbol with a number in the middle. It’s meant to categorize the type of plastic, and doesn’t always mean it can be recycled no matter what.
“I think most people say, if it’s got those chasing arrows on the bottom, it must be recyclable,” Bennett said. “This has been a sore point for about 30 years.”
In the United States, there are no federal laws that help regulate the use of the recycling symbol.
In Minnesota, the general rule is that recyclable plastics should have a 1, 2 or 5 inside their recycling symbols to be eligible for curbside pickup. Plastics with 3, 4, 6 or 7 are not collected curbside in most areas:
#1: Water bottles, soda bottles, salad dressing containers
#2: Milk jugs, shampoo bottles, detergent containers
#3: Pipes, shrink wrap, some food wraps
#4: Grocery bags, bread bags, squeeze bottles
#5: Yogurt cups, medicine bottles, takeout containers
#6: Foam cups, takeout boxes, packing peanuts
#7: Baby bottles, sunglasses, CDs, large water jugs
While the numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7 on plastic items indicate an item is technically recyclable, many recycling programs across the country find that it can be economically and logistically taxing to send those plastics through the recycling process.
“It all comes down to the end markets. What can be bought and remade into something new? That’s why we focus on 1, 2, 5,” said Heffron.
How do I recycle my e-waste?
Electronics contain toxic substances like arsenic, mercury and cadmium, so most cities and counties do not offer curbside e-waste pickup. Putting e-waste in your blue recycling bins is prohibited, and can result in fires in the bins, the recycling truck or at the sorting facility.
If you have a desire to get rid of old electronics, and want them to be repurposed, you could try donating them to certified recycling centers, special collection events and retail stores like Best Buy, Staples, Apple and Samsung.
Here are MPCA-recommended locations to drop off e-waste:
Ramsey County Environmental Center: 1700 Kent St., Roseville
Washington County South Environmental Center: 4039 Cottage Grove Dr., Woodbury
Alex Rubbish & Recycling: 2967 Pike Rd NE., Alexandria
Alter Metal Recycling-Anoka: 2905 N Ferry St., Anoka
Andover Recycling Center: 1825 Crosstown Blvd NW., Andover
Best Buy (Apple Valley, Baxter, Burnsville, Coon Rapids, Duluth, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Mankato, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Minnetonka, Oakdale, Richfield, Rochester, Roseville and St. Cloud)
Enviro-Chem, Inc. Warehouse: 20005 County Road 81, Maple Grove
Ponderosa Landfill: 20028 Gooseberry Ln, Mankato
Spring Lake Canister Site: 50524 County Road, Spring Lake
The Retrofit Companies, Inc.: Little Canada, Owatonna
The City of Columbia Heights is one of the few areas that offers e-waste curbside pickup for its residents. For e-waste pickup, residents are required to pay $20 per electronics pickup. You must schedule ahead and put items near the front door, back door or garage door.
Before dropping off your e-waste, factory reset all phones and laptops, remove hard drives from computers and securely erase your data.
For an extended list of certified e-waste recycling locations, visit MPCA’s website.
How do I prepare my recyclables?
To properly prepare your recyclables for pickup day, make sure all food and drink containers are empty, rinsed and not crushed.
“Do the best you can. It doesn’t need to be spotless, but rinse out the jar, give it a shake, dump it out, leave it to dry,” Bennett said.
If the top is clean, then you should recycle that as well. Leave plastic caps on plastic bottles, no caps should be put in the bin on their own.
Paper and cardboard can be loosely dumped in bins and should be made as flat as possible, and ideally not bigger than 3 foot square.
Remove the pumps from spray bottles. Make sure that when you recycle containers like milk jugs, juice cartons or cans, you don’t crush them ahead of tossing in bins.
Do not include plastic bags in your recycling, even if they are holding recyclables.
Where do my recyclables go once picked up?
Once the recycling truck has screeched down your street, it heads back to a central facility. Eventually your recyclables will go through a process of both mechanical and manual sorting.
“Glass gets crushed. Steel is pulled by magnets. Aluminum is separated using an eddy current. Plastics are sorted using AI robots, optical sorters and more humans,” said Bennett.
After sorters screen out anything that’s non-recyclable, a machine will then compress each material type into large bales.
Once weighed, the bales are labeled and sold to local, national or international manufacturers who may turn them into new products. Some bales may sit at the recycling processor for days, weeks or even months.
“I should stress that recycling doesn’t work unless there’s someone who wants to buy that material and get it into new stuff,” says Paul Gardner, board chair of the Recycling Association of Minnesota.
If sold, the bales that possibly contain some of your recyclables, will be made into everyday items like tires, paper notebooks, furniture and planters.
Now that you’ve read through the guide, test your knowledge by taking the quiz below:
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