Warmer weather brings about the urge to get out and clean. We hyper focus on cleaning our vehicles, garages, houses, recreational vehicles and more. Why not? It is beautiful outside, and we have been cooped up long enough. No more below zero temps to force us inside. But what are we to do with these items that we no longer want? Dispose of them properly.

Many household appliances and furniture have parts that can and should be recycled, if not recycled, they may need to be disposed of properly due to hazardous materials that, when exposed to the elements can poison soil and ground water.

It has been a long time since flat screen televisions were invented and the old tubed televisions are few and far between now, but that does not mean the metals in the TV are any less toxic when they are left to decompose in the wild.

Same thing with fluorescent lightbulbs, even the curly ones. They all contain at least some toxic material that does not need to be introduced into the environment at large. Some of these items, Tennis Sanitation will pick up, for additional fees, some need to go to the Dakota County Recycling Center in Eagan to be properly disposed of.

The easiest way to think of this is to look at the type of thing you are wanting to get rid of. If it is an entertainment piece like a TV, VCR, DVD/BlueRay player, or other audio/video piece of equipment, computer, game system, etcetera, it likely needs to go Eagan.

Furniture like couches, tables, etcetera can be picked up by Tennis for an additional fee. They can even pick up mattresses, but, because of the dump fee associated with those, it will be significantly lower cost to utilize Certified Recycling out of Burnsville.

One important piece to remember is, properly disposing of your own trash or recycling is your responsibility. Driving down a country road and randomly throwing out your couch is not only not cool, it’s horrible for the environment, it is disrespectful and costly to the land owner and it is illegal. Many landowners are putting up cameras to catch people doing this. Dumpsters around town are also not yours to use, including those on city owned property such as Veterans Park or the ice arena. Those dumpsters are for the facilities to use with the trash and recycle generated at the facility.

Recycling larger pieces of cardboard is very easy for area residents. Take a trip to Coborn’s on the couth end of town. In their parking lot close to the Speedway sits a large orange roll-off dumpster for cardboard. The best part is the money received from that recycling goes to a local charity. But it is for cardboard only, no Styrofoam or plastic.

If you are unsure about how to recycle something or if it is simply trash, visit www.hastingsmn.gov/recyclingguide. The city has a wonderful page setup to help you determine what to do with an item in question.

The City of Hastings Spring Cleanup is just around the corner too, April 11 to April 22 with curb side service for many items.