Recycling

Recycling is an everyday way to fight climate change. Recycling saves natural resources, energy and money. In 2011, Alexandria recycled:

• Over 16,300 tons of mixed paper and cardboard, saving over 275,000 trees.
• Approximately 1,400 tons of aluminum cans, saving the energy equivalent of 3,290,000 gallons of gasoline!

The recycling program is tasked with providing recycling collection to eligible single-family homes; encouraging recycling at home, school, and work; as well as providing education about recycling and setting up recycling collection programs.

What's New

Stop Delivery of Unwanted Catalogs and Junk Mail

Recycling unwanted catalogs and junkmail is an easy toss into the recycling cart each week.   Even better... not receiving these unwanted materials.   To cancel unwanted catalogs and junk mail, please check out www.dmachoice.org or www.catalogchoice.org

Some Packaging is Easier to Recycle

Just because it’s easy to toss food containers into a recycling bin doesn’t mean it’s easy to process and recover those materials.  Aluminum and metal cans are very easy to reprocess and recover metals.  Plastics are more challenging because of their wide variety and glass is nearly impossible to recycle economically.  So when shopping, consider choosing metal, plastic, or paper containers over glass.

Covanta promotes energy efficiency with donation of Electric Car fueled by Alexandria Energy from Waste Facility.

The City of Alexandria’s Department of Transportation & Environmental Services (T&ES) in partnership with Covanta Energy are working on several initiatives to promote the environmental benefits of using Alexandria/Arlington waste as fuel for the generation of electricity. As such, Covanta is donating a Nissan Leaf for the next three years; this fully electric car runs solely on a rechargeable battery, has no supplementary gas engine, and gets approximately 106 miles per gallon. The City’s Recycling Team will use this car to perform route inspections and work with businesses as they promote recycling. Due to the City’s density, electric cars with zero emissions and limited range are ideal in Alexandria.

The Covanta ‘Energy from Waste’ facility, located at 5103 Eisenhower Avenue generates enough electricity to power over 25,000 homes each year. As part of the City’s Eco-City Alexandria initiative, residents are continually encouraged to reduce, reuse, and recycle throughout the year. In 2011, the City reached its highest recycling rate to date, at a record 48%. After materials such as paper, cardboard, and metals have been removed from the waste stream through the recycling efforts of residents, the remaining garbage is used as fuel, rather than buried in a landfill. Energy from Waste facilities generate fewer harmful greenhouse gases, and the Alexandria/Arlington Energy from Waste plant has one of the most advanced emission control systems in the country. Alexandria and Arlington County recently agreed to permit Covanta to operate the Eisenhower facility until 2025.

Recycling Presentations Now Available for HOA’s or Community Groups

Confused about what can be recycled? You are not alone!  Recent improvements in sorting technology at recycling processing facilities, and global demand for recovered resources, have created changes in recycling throughout the City of Alexandria.  In addition, unwanted electronic equipment has become a resource for recovered special metals.  The City’s recycling staff is now available to discuss these changes with home-owners associations and community groups.  For more information call Stiles Peabody at 703.746.4135.

City of Alexandria Achieves 48% Recycling Rate

The City of Alexandria has achieved its highest recycling rate ever!  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has approved the City's 2011 Recycling Rate Report that documents a municipal solid waste recycling rate of 48.4 percent.  This is a seven percent increase over last year's reported 41.4 percent recycling rate, and 20 percentage points higher than the City’s 2009 recycling rate as certified by the Virginia DEQ.  The City’s recycling rate has been continuously improving over the past several years due in part to a significant reduction in the overall waste generated combined with improvements to the City’s recycling services which include larger carts for single stream recycling and the addition of alley recycling pickup services.  This improved recycling rate puts us another step closer to achieving the City’s long-term Eco-City Alexandria goals while saving the City a considerable amount of money in avoided waste disposal costs. 

• Need a new recycling container or a different size?  Visit the Recycling at Home webpage. 
• Learn what to do if a fluorescent light bulb breaks or if mercury spills.

Sign Up for Solid Waste & Recycling eNews - Would you like to receive more information about recycling and solid waste programs? Need a quick reminder when refuse service will be delayed due to a holiday? With the City of Alexandria's Free eNews service, you can receive updates about recycling and solid waste, in addition to more than 80 additional topics that may interest you.

	Home  Information for renters and home owners about what, when, where, why and how to recycle at apartments, condos, home owner associations, and single family homes.
	School  Information about recycling for City of Alexandria public and private schools.
	Work  Information for property managers, tenants and employees about recycling requirements and what, when, where, why and how to recycle at non-residential buildings.
	On the Go    Information about recycling at public buildings and special events in the City of Alexandria.