If you are an RVS Customer living in the city limits of our Brown County area and would like a Recycling Cart, please call our office to request one.
Rural brown county residents are asked to haul their recycling to a local recycling drop box
Sleepy Eye – Schutz Family Foods Parking Lot
Springfield – Springfield Market Parking Lot
New Ulm – Hy-Vee and Cashwise Parking Lots
Hanska – Near City Shop
Our co-mingle recycling gets shipped to Dem-Con Materials Recovery Facility in Shakopee, MN. This is a 70,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art processing facility located conveniently off HWY 169. Search for Dem-Con on youtube for some educational videos on recycling!!
Acceptable Recycling Products
- All white and colored writing paper, computer paper, phone books, magazines, and newspapers including inserts, junk mail
- Corrugated cardboard, including cereal, chip and cracker boxes
- DO NOT bundle newspapers in anything other than brown paper bags, NO PLASTIC BAGS
- Tin and aluminum cans: food and pet food cans (labels can be left on), soda and beer cans, clean aluminum foil and foil pans
- Glass: clear, green, brown or blue food and beverage containers
- Wine, beer, other alcohol, soda and salad dressing bottles
- Plastic: #1-#7 plastics except garden planters. Two liter bottles, plastic milk jugs and bleach bottles
Prohibited Items for Recycling
- No garbage or electronics
- No hazardous waste (paint cans, aerosol cans, syringes)
- No scrap metal including wire hangers
- No hot or cold ashes
- No concrete, rocks, gravel or wood
- No snack food bags (like chips or popcorn bags)
- No fast food containers
- No styrofoam, foam cups, foam containers or styrofoam peanuts
- No bubblewrap
- No plastic toys or furniture
- No plastic bags (plastic wrap, dry cleaning bags, softer salt bags)
- No string, twine or cotton balls
- No paper towels, napkins or tissues
- No baby diapers
- No garden product containers such as pesticide containers
- No coffee filters or tea bags
- No waxed paper or waxed anything such as milk containers, drinking boxes, frozen food boxes
- No gum or candy wrappers
- No bathroom waste paper
- No photos, slides or transparencies
Common Recycling Questions
- If you recyclables are in a plastic bag, it increases the chance that they end up in the trash because recycling process cannot process plastic bags.
- Plastic bags are consider a “contaminant” that will be removed at the sorting facility costing time and money. Plastic bags can be dropped off at most local supermarkets for recycling.
- Windows, mirrors, ceramic, kitchen dishes and drinking glasses are NOT recyclable
- Hard cover books CANNOT be recycled. The hard cover must be removed in order to recycle the pages.
- Spiral bound notebooks must have the metal or plastic spiral removed.
Brown County Special Collection Days
2022 Upcoming Events Sponsored by Brown County Solid Waste & Recycling
- May 4th – Fluorescent Bulb Collection 11:00AM – 2:00PM
- Springfield – Springfield Market, 101 W Central St.
- May 5th – Fluorescent Bulb Collection 2:00PM-4:30PM
- New Ulm – Brown County Fairgrounds, 1201 N State St.
- June 9th – Free Household Hazardous Waste 12:00PM – 5:00PM
- New Ulm – Brown County Fairgrounds, 1201 N State St.
- June 16th – Free Household Hazardous Waste
- Springfield – Brown County Highway Garage, 507 Burns Ave. 10:00AM – 12:00PM
- Sleepy Eye – Brown County REA Building, 24386 State Hwy 4, 2:00PM – 5:00PM
- Sept. 22nd – Free Household Hazardous Waste 12:00PM – 5:00PM
- New Ulm – Brown County Fairgrounds, 1201 N State St.
ANNOUNCEMENT Future Fluorescent Bulb Collections
As of July 1, 2022 Fluorescent bulbs will be collected at the Brown County Sanitary Landfill, 21933 County Road 11 Sleepy Eye
***There are fees associated with the fluorescent bulb collections and e-waste events.
***Business waste will NOT be accepted at the household hazardous waste collection events.