Here’s how to recycle political yard signs

Election season is finally over, but voters who showed support for candidates and issues with plastic yard signs shouldn’t just throw them away.

Some candidates and political parties will pick up their signs and use them again. If that doesn’t happen, recycling is the way to go. But not in the typical curbside bin.

Instead, several counties and cities in the Twin Cities metro are providing recycling drop-off locations for political signs.

Angie Timmons of Hennepin County Environmental Services says several drop-off locations will be available from Nov. 12 through Nov. 26.

“This work is in response to the many inquiries we would get this time of year,” Timmons said, noting it’s one of the first ways the county is expanding the collection of hard-to-recycle items. “This is a small but meaningful effort that aligns both with our priority actions to reinvent the solid waste system and address community concerns about plastics.”

St. Paul is accepting signs Saturday and the Washington County Environmental Center in Woodbury also takes them. Metal stakes should always be removed from the signs and can be recycled separately at scrap metal drop-offs.

Cities and counties typically send the signs to Choice Plastics, an industrial scrap plastic recycler and broker. The company was founded in 2001 and has an 80,000-square-foot facility in Mound.

“This type of plastic is easily reprocessed and repurposed,” said Dan Mayer, the company’s director of business development. “The challenges are in the collections. A lot of times, it isn’t easy enough on the consumer for them to [recycle signs].”

Election signs are made out of polypropylene and can be processed back into coroplast sheets relatively easily, Mayer says. Choice Plastics bales the election signs it receives from counties and candidates and ships them to a partner in Wisconsin for recycling.

In a typical election year, Choice Plastics may get a few thousand signs for recycling from surrounding communities that hold organized pickups, Mayer said. In a presidential election year, it could be closer to 5,000.

Dakota County is not offering an election sign drop-off this year, but the county collected nearly 500 graduation and other yard signs over the summer. A county spokeswoman urged residents to contact local candidates and political parties for recycling options.

Anoka County has recycling locations that will take up to five signs. County spokesman Erik Thorson noted that signs could also be reused in creative ways, such as for the bottom of a reusable tote bag. Some hunters make decoys out of old election signs.