Happy America Recycles Month, Franklin County. Each November, SWACO and the nation recognize America Recycles Month and America Recycles Day, which is Sunday, November 15th. It’s a time to celebrate what’s working and consider how we can improve our recycling efforts. To encourage you to supercharge your recycling this month, SWACO will be temporarily eliminating all fees for materials received at the Recycling Convenience Center, located at 2566 Jackson Pike, from this coming Saturday, November 7th through the 21st. During this time, you can bring all of your recycling to the convenience center for free, including things like paints, old TVs and computer monitors, and tires.
Special fee waiver available to Franklin County residents only. Commercial businesses are not eligible. Ohio law limits tire transportation to 10 tires at a time. SWACO accepts up to 10 tires per household, with one drop-off per household. Normal fees apply outside the promotion period. SWACO reserves the right to refuse service to anyone who does not follow these guidelines.
SWACO’s Recycling Convenience Center opened its doors on America Recycles Day in 2023, and last year, it welcomed more than 3,000 local residents who were dropping off all sorts of harder-to-recycle items. In addition to the kinds of recycling that can go in a curbside cart or neighborhood drop-off, the center also accepts electronics, automotive fluids, appliances, scrap metal, Styrofoam, and much more. Click below for a list of everything that is accepted at the Recycling Convenience Center.
Autumn Recycling Is In Full Swing
There are several seasonal items that we can recycle each fall, including pumpkins and gourds and election yard signs, and SWACO’s got the resources to help you responsibly dispose of both.
Yard signs can contain several different types of materials. Paper and cardboard signs can be put into your curbside recycling or dropped off at a neighborhood recycling drop-off point as long as they don’t have metal or wooden stakes attached. Plastic and coroplast signs and their metal stands can be dropped off at the Recycling Convenience Center throughout the year and, during the month of November, they can be dropped off at the Franklin County Board of Elections at 1700 Morse Road in Columbus.
More than a billion pounds of pumpkins and gourds are thrown away each year in the United States, and that’s material that doesn’t need to be in the landfill. Instead, you can compost them at home, give them to a local farmer for animal snacks, or drop them off for composting. Click below for more information and a list of pumpkin and gourd drop-off sites throughout the community.
Upcoming Events
Free Landfill Tour
Join us on Saturday, November 7th for a fun and informative tour of the landfill to learn all about how SWACO safely manages all of our community’s waste. The tour takes about 90 minutes, half in a classroom setting and half actually driving through the landfill. It’s open to any Franklin County resident over the age of six, so click HERE to register today!
Green Holiday Webinar
The holiday season brings plenty of opportunities to gather with family and friends and to generate extra waste. Join us at noon on November 18 for an hour-long Green Holiday webinar all about simple ways to reduce waste while hosting holiday get-togethers, from using reusable party supplies and thrifting for decorations, to planning meals that help prevent food waste. We’ll also demonstrate how to use RecycleRight.org to find recycling info and drop-off locations for common holiday materials and items that can’t go in your curbside recycling cart. Click HERE to register.
Recycle Your Mattress
Many of us have an old mattress or box spring at home that we need to get rid of, but the options can be limited, especially if you want it to be sustainably recycled. Through the end of November, however, you can drop mattresses off at SWACO’s Recycling Convenience Center at 2566 Jackson Pike and rest easy knowing that they will be responsibly recycled. All sizes of mattresses and materials are accepted (no waterbeds), but they must be dry and free of bedbugs, mold, blood, or other excessive staining. Rips, tears, and mild dirt or staining are okay. Click here for more information!
