Recycle Right
Why Recycle
Annually, Franklin County residents and businesses send over a million tons of material to the Franklin County Landfill. Even more surprising is that nearly 76% of all the material in the landfill could have been recycled or composted.
By taking just a few minutes to recycle right, you help to reduce pollution, contribute to clean water, conserve limited natural resources and reduce central Ohio’s reliance on landfills.
The Recycling Journey
How can you give your recyclables a new life?
GET STARTED
1. Getting Started
By putting your recyclables in a recycling bin or recycling location, you can give them new life. For example, what happens to a plastic bottle after it leaves your home?
2. Collection
Plastic bottles are collected along with other recyclable items such as cardboard, glass, and aluminum cans.
3. Sorting
Once collected, recyclable materials are delivered to a processing facility where different material types are separated using a series of conveyor belts, screens, electro-magnets, and human sorters. Once separated, plastic bottles are compressed into bales, sold, and shipped.
4. Processing & Manufacturing
Plastic bottles and caps are chopped into small flakes and water is used to separate the materials by density-bottle pieces sink while cap pieces float. The separated material is heated into a liquid and extruded into long strands. The strands are cooled, chopped into pellets, and used to make a variety of products.
5. A New Life
Plastic bottles can be recycled into durable decks, carpeting, new bottles, or even soft, comfortable fabric used for fashion or upholstery. Bottle caps can become tough kitchen bowls and cutting boards, car battery cases, toothbrushes, and storage bins.
Make a Difference
Start giving new life to all your recyclable materials. Learn about where you can recycle your items and how recycling makes a difference in our community.
You take out the bins. We’ll take out the hassle.
In Franklin County, curbside recycling service is available to over 96% of households and SWACO operates 50 recycling drop-off locations for residents and businesses without recycling services. To find information about a curbside program or find a drop-off location close to you, see the links below.
Want to know more about the recycling process?
Watch this video from a local recycling facility.
Interested in visiting Rumpke’s Columbus Recycling Facility?