Apple Valley, MN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 50.04(B)(1)(g) of the Apple Valley Code of Ordinances says a licensed collector is required to provide recycling services and opportunities for its customers. Each licensed hauler must give its individual residential collection customers weekly collection of garbage and other refuse, yard waste and recyclables, subject to the daily residential hauling zone restrictions. Recyclables are collected on the same day as the customer's garbage, though at a different time within that day. The pickup location follows § 50.02(C): the curb or an agreed spot, no earlier than 6:00 p.m. the night before. The licensee is deemed the owner of the recyclables and can market them once collected.

A hauler can move recyclables to bi-weekly collection for individual residential customers only if it meets four conditions. Collection has to comply with the daily residential hauling zone restrictions. The hauler has to provide single-sort recycling, so the customer can commingle all recyclables in a single container. It has to provide a close fitting covered container of not less than 30 gallon capacity and, at the customer's request, a larger one at no additional cost. And it has to comply with the collection and hauling requirements for recycling services under Dakota County Ordinance No. 110 effective January 1, 2022.

Multiple dwellings carry their own mandate. Under § 50.04(B)(1)(l) and (m), it is unlawful after January 1, 1991 for a residential dwelling association or management entity to negotiate, execute or maintain a garbage collection contract unless it includes weekly collection of recyclables, so apartment and association residents have the same opportunity to recycle as other households. Licensing adds a paper trail: under § 50.04(A)(1)(g) each hauler's application must describe the location and method of storage of collected recyclable materials.

Section 50.01 defines RECYCLABLES as materials suitable for separating from solid waste for recycling, including but not limited to paper, glass, plastics, metals, automobile oil, batteries and the like. Refuse-derived fuel or other material destroyed by incineration does not count. TARGETED RECYCLABLES are metal beverage containers, glass containers, newsprint or other materials the City Council designates by resolution.