Dakota County, MN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

05 of Dakota County's Solid Waste Management Ordinance No. 110 sets the day-to-day operating rules for anyone who manages trash, recycling and organics collection, from commercial generators to multi-unit residential building owners to sponsors of large events. 01(A)(4) and (5), and it mandates a collection schedule and container capacity adequate to serve every indoor and outdoor location, public space, private space and communal space on the property. The proximity rule is specific: trash containers or collection chutes 'must be co-located within 10 feet from a recycling container or recycling chute,' and 'each container or chute must have equal access,' meaning a recycling bin tucked behind a locked door while the trash chute sits in the open hallway does not satisfy the ordinance.

All three streams have a destination requirement: trash must go to a licensed or permitted disposal facility, recyclables to a recycling facility, and organics to food recovery, a composting facility, or an anaerobic digester. 05(A)(6) adds an education duty on top of the physical setup: property owners, managers and event sponsors must give solid waste abatement messaging, in print or electronic form, to every employee, tenant, multi-unit resident, student, volunteer, and housekeeping or custodial contractor, at least once a year, within 30 days of any substantive change to the waste program, and within 30 days of any new hire or new tenant, following the messaging Dakota County publishes on its website. 06.