The City of Eagan Parks & Recreation is adopting a "Pack-In, Pack-Out" program in 13 of Eagan’s smaller neighborhood parks.
As we try the Pack-In, Pack-Out program in a limited number of smaller parks, we are going to listen to residents and adjust as needed so we can keep our parks clean and usable for everyone!
Pack-In, Pack-Out Parks (parks without trash bins):
- Beecher Park
- Berry Patch Park
- Cinnamon Ridge Park
- Evergreen Park
- Hidden Corner Park
- Highview Park
- Lakeside Park
- Lexington Park
- Peridot Path Park
- River Hills Park
- Slater Acres Park
- South Oaks Park
- Walden Heights Park
- Wescott Station Park
A total of 11 trash bins, collectively, will be removed from the parks listed.
Eagan has 60 parks across all 33 square miles of Eagan. No resident lives further than one mile from a park.
Why the change?
Dakota County recently passed an ordinance (ordinance 110) designed to:
- reduce waste going into landfills,
- improve the quality of materials recycled, and
- make progress toward Minnesota’s goal to recycle 75 percent of waste by 2030.
The goals of the program fall in line with Eagan's values, but they also created a mandate for the City to have recycling bins wherever a trash bin is provided. While this seems simple at first blush, there are some impacts including:
- The cost of a recycling bin next to every garbage bin in Eagan parks would be $100,000.
- Purchasing an additional trash/recycling truck to pick up the recycling would cost an additional $125,000.
- The City would have ongoing costs for maintaining the bins, vehicle costs, disposal, and additional staff time.
What are we doing?
Eagan’s Parks & Recreation team is always innovating, creating, and partnering with our community to make our parks some of the best in the country. In fact, we’ve been able to expand our parks, playgrounds, and paths thanks to these efforts, and it is no different in this case.
We are asking our community for their help keeping Eagan parks trash-free in 13 of our smallest neighborhood parks, so we can:
- maintain our current park system, programs, and paths
- go even greener, and
- keep our bottom line, and your taxes in line.
What you can do
You, or your organization, can also help keep our parks clean and accessible by signing up to volunteer to do a park clean-up.
About Eagan parks by the numbers
- 60 - Eagan has 60 parks across all 33 square miles of Eagan
- #1 - Eagan was the top-rated community for parks and recreation opportunities by its residents in a 2020 national community survey
- 97% of Eagan residents shared that they are likely to visit a park in Eagan
- 99% of Eagan residents rated the quality of our parks positively
- 100+ - Eagan has over 100 miles of sidewalk, trails, and paths that connect our community
- <1 mile - No resident lives further than one mile from a park
