Blaine, MN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 62-22, "Obligations of the haulers," requires that all haulers licensed to collect refuse in the City of Blaine offer the collection and disposition of recyclables to every one of their customers under subsection (b)(4), and subsection (b)(5) sets the floor for what that recycling program must cover: an opportunity to recycle at least three broad types of recyclable materials as listed in Minn. Stat. § 115A.151. Chapter 62's definitions in section 62-19 describe recyclable materials broadly, including paper, glass, plastics, metals, automobile oil and batteries, while excluding refuse-derived fuel or anything destroyed by incineration.

Haulers must report to the city, by the 15th of each month, a full tonnage accounting of refuse, recyclables and yard waste collected the prior month under subsection (b)(6), and must convey collected recyclables to be recycled consistent with industry standards rather than disposing of them at a solid waste facility, absent a case-by-case exemption, under subsection (b)(9). Recyclable materials remain city property from the moment residents set them out until the hauler collects them, per section 62-20(d)(2)a, which is also why unauthorized scavenging of curbside recycling bins carries its own petty misdemeanor and misdemeanor penalties separate from the hauler's recycling obligations under this section.