Embracing the Power of Recycling

Haywood County -- March 7, 2024: The Haywood County Government Embracing the Power of Recycling! Did you know that every small effort we make to recycle

goes a long way in preserving our environment? In Haywood County, we're committed to promoting the importance of recycling for our beautiful corner of North Carolina and beyond!

Haywood County is participating in a statewide campaign to reduce contamination in our recycling - Recycle Right NC
Recycle Right NC is a state-wide campaign to reduce the amount of contamination in our recycling stream and increase the amounts of good recyclables we send to our processor. 

Recycling is going strong in Haywood County.  Don’t let the rumors get you down. The focus is on our single-stream collections at curbside and convenience centers. Review the attached information, put on your recycling hat, and #RecycleRightNC!

Special waste collections are still available at the convenience centers and Clyde Materials Recovery Facility.  

Household Hazardous Wastes (HHW) - Not recyclable, but requires special disposal
Haywood County is not certified to collect these materials on a daily basis so our contractor schedules periodic collection events run by certified HHW collection companies in order to properly collect and dispose of these materials.  Events will be announced on our Upcoming Events Page and in the local newspaper.  

HHW consists of oil-based paints, paint-related items, gasoline, cleaning chemicals, pesticides and other common chemicals used around your house.

Water-based paints are the exception to this rule.  Paint cans can be dried out using kitty litter, sawdust or sand.  Once the paint has hardened, it can be disposed of in your household garbage.
Sustainability
Haywood County is dedicated to sustainability! In January 2008, the Board of County Commissioners approved the county’s first Sustainability Plan to encourage and educate our employees to take practical, measurable steps to reduce waste, reuse products, and recycle materials by the daily choices our employees make. Our mission is to openly communicate our environmental practices and performances as part of an ongoing dialogue with the business community and our citizens to foster a county-wide commitment to best practices to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Single Stream Materials

Single-stream materials are collected at the curbside inside town limits and in either A-Frame containers or compactors at the convenience centers.  Acceptable materials include aluminum cans, steel cans, food grade glass bottles and jars, aseptic and gable top cartons (milk and juice boxes) newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, clean pizza boxes (no grease), soda bottles, milk jugs, and butter tubs, yogurt cups, and shampoo bottles (no clam shells, travel size or bag type plastic).  All items should be rinsed of any food and can go into the containers loose, please no plastic bags.  

Return your plastic grocery bags to the store for proper recycling.  

No styrofoam.  This material may have a recycling symbol, but we do not have a recycling outlet for it.  Check with your local shipping companies to see if they can take any packing materials you may have.  Food containers should be disposed of in the trash.   

No large rigid plastics. These go with the trash at the MRF. Please don’t put them in compactors as they can become a hazard when compacted.  

Metal is collected separately at selected convenience centers and the MRF.  

Televisions and Electronics

Bring your old television sets and electronic devices to the Haywood County Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Clyde anytime during normal operating hours. These items are palletized and shipped to an R2/RIOS certified facility to be properly deconstructed and recycled.  Please do not break the glass or screens as it releases heavy metals such as mercury and lead.  

Cooking Oil

Bring your used cooking oil to any of our 10 convenience centers around the county or to the Materials Recovery Facility in Clyde. 

To recycle cooking oil, citizens are asked to pour it into a clean plastic container with a lid, such as an empty cooking oil bottle or milk jug. The cooking oil container should be kept separate from other recyclables and handed to an attendant at the convenience centers and the MRF. For optimal use in converting to diesel fuel, we recommend that you bring your cooking oil frequently instead of letting it collect for a long time.

Batteries

You can bring all household batteries to the convenience centers and the MRF to be recycled. All you have to do is place them in a baggie and give them to an attendant. Rechargeable batteries should be in a separate baggie from non-rechargeable batteries and have the terminals taped to avoid touching. The batteries should be kept inside out of the weather.  Car batteries are collected at the MRF only.

Fluorescent Bulbs   

Compact fluorescent bulbs are collected at all convenience centers and the MRF.  They should be sealed in a plastic baggie and intact as they contain mercury.  These can be handed to the attendant to be placed in the collection container.  Long tubes are collected at the MRF and should be intact.  There are collection boxes inside the lower building.  Ask an attendant for assistance.  

Why You Should Recycle

There are many good reasons for reducing waste and increasing recycling. Here’s a few to think about:

Capacity at the White Oak Landfill is reaching its limit and new landfills are getting more difficult to permit in North Carolina. The county is faced with spending millions of dollars in the next several years to close one landfill cell and prepare another for use.

Landfills compete with other land uses, such as residential, business and industry, transportation, and recreation.
Extraction of raw materials to manufacture new goods is threatening natural ecosystems around the world. Many of these raw materials could come from recycled goods. For example, it can take as much as 1 ton of earth to get 5 grams of gold. However, a ton of cell phones yields not only 400 grams of gold, but 500 grams of silver.
Join Us in Our Sustainability Efforts

Our Sustainability Plan is a work in progress that we expect to update and improve on a quarterly basis. An important part of our plan is to dialogue with the community, and work together to reduce, reuse and recycle. We welcome your ideas and your input! For more information or feedback, contact Haywood County Solid Waste at recycle@haywoodcountync.gov. 

Visit the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle page from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency here