Residents must opt-in to receive curbside recycling services. To enroll complete the online form at clerecycles.com or call 216.664.3030. 

How do I replace a damaged cart?
If you need to replace a damaged cart, please call 216.664.3711 or 3-1-1

I don’t have a blue cart. Where can I take my recyclables?
There are currently two drop off locations for residential recycling:
• East Side      5600 Carnegie Avenue (Monday-Saturday, 9am-3pm)
• West Side     3727 Ridge Road (Monday-Saturday, 9am-3pm)

View full list of Acceptable Materials

Recycling Tips

• Mix all items together – all items should be loose and unbagged in the cart
• Ignore the recycling symbol and numbers on items, only items listed will be accepted
• Empty all bottles, jugs, and cans
• No need to remove labels
• For plastic bottles, empty, crush, and reattach lids
• For cartons, remove plastic caps and straws
• NEVER place medical sharps or needles in the recycling
  
  

NOT for Recycling
No plastic bags, cassette tapes, bed sheets, hangers, metal chains, garden hoses, batteries, needles, syringes, electronics, polystyrene foam, buckets, car parts, food, yard waste, light bulbs, drinking glasses, ceramics, pots, pans, and scrap metal.

What’s not recyclable?
Anything not listed above as an acceptable item, should not be placed
in the blue recycling cart. In most cases, it can be put in the black trash cart. Check the Cuyahoga
County Solid Waste District’s CuyahogaRecycles.org webpage for alternative recycling programs,
hazardous materials disposal, and drop-off locations.

Enrolled households will receive a welcome booklet with 3 sticker inserts. These stickers must be placed on your City blue recycling cart to be identified as enrolled in the recycling program. 

*Allow 4-6 weeks from the date of enrollment to receive the welcome booklet and stickers.

What does it mean to “opt in”?
The new program works like a free subscription service for recycling at your home. Opting in is the
way that you enroll for that service. This is a one-time action. You will not have to renew it.

Do I have to pay a fee for recycling?
There is no separate “recycling fee”. The $8.75 fee that residents pay covers a portion of all waste
management activities in Cleveland, including trash and bulk materials pickup.

Can I put plastic bags of recyclables in the blue cart?
No. Plastic bags cannot be put in mixed recyclables. If you use a plastic bag collect recyclables in
the house, dump them out of the bag into the blue recycling cart. The empty bag can be put in
the trash cart. Check local retail stores for recycling programs for grocery bags and other thin film
plastic bags.

Will I get cited for not recycling properly?
The City maintains the right to issue citations for flagrant violations of the rules (ex. yard waste,
building materials, trash bags, or hoses in recycling carts). Grossly contaminated recycling carts will
be emptied into the trash. Repeated flagrant violations can result in the cart being taken away.

If I didn’t opt in, can I still recycle at home?
If a household has not opted in to the recycling program, the City will remove the recycling bin from
that location. However, you may still participate in recycling at drop-off locations.

How clean should the material be?
Containers should be emptied and rinsed, a quick rinse is usually enough. Certain containers such
as peanut butter jars, require more effort.

What container lids are recyclable?

Plastic lids can be recycled, however, please reattach them to plastic bottles, jugs, tubs, and cups. Metal lids should be removed from glass jars and placed in the recycling cart

View a full list of common FAQs

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The City of Cleveland has selected Rumpke Waste & Recycling, Ohio’s largest recycler and a leading processor in the Midwest, to process recycling collected from the City’s curbside recycling program. Cleveland’s Public Works Department will collect the recycling and transport the material to the Ridge Road Transfer Station. From there, Rumpke will transport the recyclables to the Medina County Recycling Center for pre-sort and removal of commodities such as cardboard and glass. Rumpke will ship cardboard to end-users and glass to Rumpke’s one-of-a-kind glass processing plant, located in Dayton, OH. Rumpke will transport the remaining recycling to Rumpke’s Columbus Material Recovery Facility for further processing.  Currently, 100% of Rumpke’s collected recyclables go to domestic end-users, with 80% destined for end-users in Ohio and 95% in the Midwest - keeping all materials within our region. 

For more information on the City of Cleveland’s waste collection and the updated recycling program email [email protected]

We Need Your Help to Spread the Word!

Download recycling materials for social posts, flyers, and more.

We were excited to see so many of you join us for our first virtual Quarterly Meeting of 2020. Our Chief of Sustainability, Jason Wood, started us off with an overview of where Sustainable Cleveland is heading beyond 2019 to build off the momentum generated in the first 10 years of the initiative and continue progress towards becoming a green city on a blue lake. You can learn what we've been up to so far here. 

Our Sustainability Director, Kristin Hall, also provided an update on the City's recycling program and efforts underway to reduce waste in Cleveland, while supporting a local circular economy. As the City of Cleveland works to evaluate and update our recycling program, it is important for us to keep residents informed and engaged throughout the process. Please complete the brief contact form here so we can keep you updated with program changes and opportunities to provide your input. If you have specific questions, feel free to contact the Mayor's Office of Sustainability at [email protected].

We had a lot of great questions posed to us at the meeting. Questions asked and answered during the meeting may be found here. Questions asked in the Chat Box and answered may be found here.

Check out additional resources that were mentioned in the meeting:

• Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Management District
• Water Equity Roadmap
• Bulk Waste Pickup

View the recorded meeting here and save the date for Mayor Jackson's 2020 Sustainable Cleveland (virtual) Summit on October 14th & 15th, 2020. Also, stay tuned as we bring you future conversations in the form of virtual Monthly Series that will focus on a different, important topic each month.

We know many of you are concerned about recycling in Cleveland, so we want to take a minute to share how we got where we are, and where we are going next.

Is it spring yet? These 60- and 70-degree days have us thinking about warmer weather, and everyone knows Cleveland comes alive in the spring and summer months with plenty of events every night of the week. As you begin to plan your social calendar and summer get-togethers, we encourage you to be conscious of the waste generated at your event and consider taking measures to reduce this waste.