Funding & Technical Assistance

​​​​​​Dakota County offers a variety of resources to help businesses and organizations reduce waste, collect recycling and organics, and enhance employee recycling knowledge.

Free labels and educational resources

All businesses in Dakota County can request free recycling, organics and trash container labels posters and Recycle Right handouts with lists of what can be recycled or collected for organics. Labels and handouts are shipped at no cost. Order labels and other ​edu​cational resources.

• Recycling education resources for your staff, housekeeping/cleaning vendors and tenants ​
  
• Sample email and newsletter articles
• Sample presentations with talking points
• ​Organics educational resources for businesses with com​mercial composting
• Sample email and newsletter articles
• Sample presentations with talking points
• Organics educational resources for businesses that send food scraps to animal feed
• Sample email and newsletter articles
• Sample presentations with talking points
• Images and icons
  
• Recycle Right Guides
• Recycling and Trash (English and Spanish)
• Recycling, Organics and Trash (English and Spanish​)

Apply for Business Recycling Program funding

Dakota County offers funding up to $10,000 to eligible businesses and organizations to start or improve waste management practices, including waste prevention, recycling and food waste prevention and organics collection for food donation or composting. Learn more about the Business Recycling Program. No match is required.

Complete a short q​uestionnaire to see if your business or organization is eligible for funding assistance.

After completing the questionnair​e, a county technical assistance consultant will contact you, meet with you at your location to develop a customized plan, and help you complete a funding application for containers, labels, signage and other materials. Training sessions for employees are also available. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no fee for this service.

• Funding project examples:
• Recycling and organics containers and equipment
• Waste reduction projects (e.g., reusable serviceware)
• Education materials and employee training 
• Organics hauling services and compostable bags (up to six months)
• A county-hired sustainability consultant assists throughout the project, including:
• Funding application and project activity reporting assistance
• Project planning, implementation, coordination and troubleshooting assistance

Learn more

Review the Business Recycling Program Guidelines or email businessrecycling@co.dakota.mn.us.

Review funding highlights, program par​ticipants and success stories with the 2022 Minnesota Waste Wise A​nnual Report.