Dakota Valley Recycling coordinates multiple opportunities every year for residents to recycle bulky items, hazardous waste, and other problem materials that are not accepted curbside. Most events are open to all residents within Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, and Lakeville. Some of the events are free, and others require small disposal fees. Click on the tabs from the list below for more information about DVR's annual collection events. 

Tips for drop-off days

• Coordinate with your neighbors or friends to load up one vehicle to deliver items to the drop-off day in order to reduce wait times.
• For your safety, do not step out of your vehicle during drop-off days. 
• Do not pack batteries and bulbs together. Separating them will reduce likelihood of breakage and prevent hazardous spills. 
• Consider donation before recycling whenever possible by using the Dakota County Reuse Guide.
• Dakota County residents may attend any of the Dakota County drop-off days happening throughout the year. Paper shredding is often offered at all drop-off day events. To find other events, visit the Dakota County Green Guideand click Recycling Events. 

**This event has been canceled in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19**

Event Details

Date: Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Family Aquatic Center, 14421 Johnny Cake Ridge Rd, Apple Valley

For Apple Valley Residents ONLY. Must show proof of residence. 

Accepted Items 

• Appliances: $15/item  
• Tires
  Car: $5 each; Semi: $10 each, Tractor: $25 each
• Scrap metal: $7-$10/item
• Mattress and box springs 
  $25 each ($10 for baby mattresses)
• Furniture
  Recliners, sofas, love seats: $15 
  Pull-out sofas: $25
  Wooden chairs: $5
• Carpet and padding: $1/square yard 
• Home remodeling debris: $50/pickup load
• Miscellaneous: $35-$50 (based on volume) 
• Document destruction: FREE
  
  Cash or check payable to City of Apple Valley

Not Accepted

• Paint, cleaners, pesticides*
• Other household hazardous waste* 
• Electronics*
• Fluorescent bulbs*
• Motor oil/filters*
• Car batteries*
  
  *These items are accepted at the Burnsville Hazardous Waste Collection also on Sept. 29, or year round at The Recycling Zone

• Any yard waste
• Business waste
• Railroad ties and treated lumber
• Pharmaceuticals

For more information about the drop-off event, or questions about recycling items not accepted at this event, contact Dakota Valley Recycling at 952-895-4559.

**Rescheduled for Saturday, October 3, 2020 at Cascade Bay**

Need to get rid of sensitive documents? Attend Dakota Valley Recycling's Shred Event at the Eagan Community Center! The event is open to residents of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, and Lakeville. The event is free and shredding will occur on-site.

Details: 

Date: Saturday, October 3, 2020
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. 
Location: Cascade Bay Parking Lot
1360 Civic Center Dr., Eagan, MN 55121 
Cost: FREE  (limit to four paper bags or small boxes per vehicle)
Open to residents of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan and Lakeville. For more recycling events in other Dakota County cities, view the Dakota County Green Guide and click Recycling Events.

NO business waste including from home-based businesses. 

How to Prepare for your documents for destruction:

• You may leave staples and paper clips on items before destruction. Large metal binder clips and three ring binders should be removed
• You may bring items in paper bag for easier handling. A plastic bag or cardboard box is fine too, but be prepared to dump items from plastic bag into cart. 

Paperwork with confidential information should be shredded to prevent the possibility of identity theft but not all documents need to be shredded. In fact, shredded paper wears down the fibers making it more difficult to recycle. With that in mind, please shred only what you need to, and recycle the rest. 

Can't make it to our shredding event? Check out our Document Destruction Guideto find locations to bring documents, or visit the Dakota County Green Guide to see a list of shredding events throughout the county (under Recycling Events). For more information on this event please call the Recycling Hotline at 952-895-4559.

Make your next event or gathering a green one! Dakota Valley Recycling can help you plan a low-waste event by providing free resources to residents and event planners. View the following guides to get started.

Free Guides

1. Planning a low waste event

2. Reduce your waste guide for vendors

3. Vendors that sell compostable products

Borrow Supplies

If you live in Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, or Lakeville, Dakota Valley Recycling also has free and easy to use recycling resources for your event including: 

• Portable recycling, organics, and trash stations
• Signs and banners
• Bags and litter grabbers

Contact Jackson Becker by email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), or by phone (952-895-4511) to reserve equipment. Please note that for larger events requiring 10 or more frames/stations, we will direct you to use Dakota County resources. 

Set up disposal

In order to recycle what you collect, you will have to arrange for a pick up service through a licensed hauler. For a list of licensed commercial haulers, visit our hauler guide here. 

If you collected organics during your event including food and compostable products, you must arrange a separate pick-up for the material to go to a commercial organics recycling site. You may set that service up with your selected hauler. If food and food scraps only were collected, you may place that in a backyard composter.

If you collected any hazardous materials during your event including but not limited to paints, cleaners, fuels, and most products labeled dangerous, flammable, combustible, poisonous, or corrosive, you will need to bring these items to The Recycling Zone in Eagan. Residents are able to drop off hazardous waste for free during open business hours.  

Did you know that the volume of trash generally increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Years? Help reduce that waste with some easy reducing and recycling holiday tips. 

*New location in Burnsville!* America Recycles Day (November 15) is a nationally recognized day started by Keep America Beautiful dedicated to encouraging individuals and organizations alike to recycle and buy recycled products. Since 2008, Dakota Valley Recycling has held a shoe recycling collection event for a whole week in November to celebrate recycling. This year, Dakota Valley Recycling is working with USAgain, a national company that collects textiles to be reused or recycled. 

Where and when can you drop off shoes?

Apple Valley Community Center
14603 Hayes Rd.
Apple Valley, MN 55124

Burnsville Civic Center Amphitheater   *New location!!*
251 Civic Center Parkway
Burnsville, MN 55337

Eagan Civic Arena
3870 Pilot Knob Rd
Eagan, MN 55122

Lakeville Police Department
9237 183rd St. W.
Lakeville, MN 55044

What happens to the shoes collected?

Shoes in good condition will be cleaned up and reused by giving to those in need. Shoes that are no longer in good condition will be separated and the parts such as rubber and textiles will be recycled. 

Last years results

Last year we collected a total of 5.7 tons of shoes! Let's see what we can do in 2020!

That's equivalent to the weight of an adult Asian Elephant,

Or the weight of 23 fully grown pigs! 

Let's work to make 2020 a record year for recycling. For resources on where to bring textiles year round visit www.co.dakota.mn.us/and search Donate Your Stuff. For questions about this event, call the Dakota Valley Recycling Hotline at 952-895-4559 

For years, doctors have told people to stick to a low-salt diet.  According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), our waters should follow the same advice.

When snow and ice start to accumulate on Minnesota roads, parking lots, and sidewalks, one of the more common reactions is to apply salt, which contains chloride--a water pollutant.  When snow and ice melt, most of the salt goes with it, washing into our lakes, streams and rivers.  Once in the water, there’s no way to remove the chloride, and it becomes a pollutant.

According to Brooke Asleson, MPCA project manager for the Twin Cities Metro Area Chloride Project, “salt is a real threat to water quality.  It only takes one teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute five gallons of water.  We are trying to spread the word that less is more when it comes to applying salt because at high concentrations, chloride can harm the fish and plant life in our waters.”

Check out the MPCA's video on winter sidewalk and driveway maintenance, with tips on types of salt, when to use it and how much to use:

Here are some ways for homeowners to reduce salt use while still making sure your sidewalk and driveway is safe:

• Shovel.  The more snow and ice you remove manually, the less salt you will have to use and the more effective it can be.  Break up ice with an ice scraper and decide if application of a de-icer or sand is even necessary to maintain traction.
• More salt does not mean more melting.  Use less than four pounds of salt per 1,000 square feet (an average parking space is about 150 square feet).  One pound of salt is approximately a heaping 12-ounce coffee mug.
• 15 degrees is too cold for salt to work.  Most salts stop working around this temperature.  Instead, use sand for traction.
• Sweep up extra salt.  If salt or sand is visible on dry pavement, it is no longer doing any work and will be washed away.

To learn more about what you can to reduce chloride in our waters, visit the agency’s Twin Cities Metro Area Chloride Project webpage.