Due to the increased cost of recycling and ongoing contamination issues, the City's 20 overflow recycling locations have been removed.  

Two new overflow recycling locations have opened at the Solid Waste Transfer Station and White Street Landfill for paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, and glass. 

All recycling must be placed loosely in the dumpsters. If you bag your recycling, you must dump the contents of the bag out. Plastic bags are not recyclable in City carts or recycling locations.

To save space, please break down all boxes. For safety reasons, you are not allowed to break down boxes at the drop-off location. Please break them down in advance.

The service is free for City residents and $10 for non-residents. Proof of residency is required. When you arrive, proceed to the scale house window for unloading instructions during business hours.

If you regularly have excess recycling, call 336-373-CITY (2489) to purchase a second recycling cart for your home for a fee. To be sure you’re recycling right, download the GSO Collects app and use the Waste Wizard to find out what goes where. 

If you live in an apartment, townhome, or other multifamily community that doesn't offer on-site recycling, you can still recycle! 

We have two drop off locations for mixed recycling. Remember, please DO NOT BAG your recycling, but dump it loosely in the dumpster. Drop off paper, plastic, metal, and glass (separate container for glass) at either the Solid Waste Transfer Station or the White St. Landfill. 

On-site recycling for multi-family residences is not required by City of Greensboro ordinance at this time. Due to heavy contamination (garbage) in multi-family community recycling dumpsters, property managers/owners may have opted out of recycling. 

What do I do with glass now? 

You can still recycle glass items by taking your empty, clean, and dry glass bottles and jars to any of these locations:

Glass dropped off at these locations will be combined with glass collected from local bars and restaurants, and recycled into new glass bottles and jars in North Carolina.

Why can't I recycle glass with other recyclables?

In the past, Greensboro received a share of the revenue from the sale of recyclables sorted by our contractor. But now, the City must pay to recycle glass. It costs our recycling contractor $22 a ton, and that does not include the cost to sort it from other recyclables and ship it to the next plant. In order to be better stewards of our tax dollars, we chose to remove glass from our recycling stream.

Glass also weighs a lot - about 25 percent of Greensboro's total recycling by weight. Because recycling will now cost the City money, the lighter our recycling stream, the lower the cost to recycle.

Greensboro monitors what goes in recycling carts under the Recycle Right program. If you have items we do not accept in your recycling -- called "contamination" -- our truck drivers may tag your address and we'll mail you a postcard detailing the contamination that was in your recycling cart. Since glass isn't accepted in the recycling program it is considered a contaminant. 

If you contaminate recycling three times within a six-month period, your recycling cart will be removed for non-compliance with recycling guidelines.