Recycling in Winston-Salem : What you should, and should not, recycle

Trying to decide what you can and cannot recycle in your city?

City recycling support varies from city to city. For those that live in our local community, Winston-Salem, NC, here's a list of things you should recycle. Anything not on this list should not be recycled at this time.

List of things you can recycle in Winston-Salem

• Corrugated cardboard - flattened and no larger that 3x3 feet (larger cardboard boxes may be taken to collection sites located throughout the city - see below)
• Junk mail and office paper such as envelopes, notebook paper, office paper
• Chipboard (usually brown or gray on the inside) such as cereal boxes, paper towel cores, facial tissue boxes, etc. Please remove any foil or plastic liners
• Newspaper, magazines, phone books
• Plastic bottles #1 through #7
• Aluminum and steel food and beverage cans, glass food and beverage jars/bottles, aerosol cans.

List of items you should NOT recycle in Winston-Salem

Again, we repeat - please do not include the following items in your recycle bin!

• Aluminum - foil, pie tins, scraps, etc.
• Antifreeze containers
• Books - that includes binders and spiral notebooks
• Ceramic containers or deli containers
• Glass - dishes, drinking glasses, window glass, mirrors, etc.
• Light bulbs
• Motor oil containers
• Paint cans
• Plastics - bags, newspaper bags, wrap, etc.
• Pyrex containers
• Styrofoam
• Boxes with food - pizza boxes or any cardboard boxes that are contaminated with food or grease residue.

More details on what NOT to recycle

Ever wonder if a particular piece of cardboard or plastic can be recycled? Can you recycle cereal boxes, for example? Can you recycle plastic or cardboard that doesn't have the recycling symbol on it? Below is some more detail on what you should, and should not, recycle. 

Chipboard – this would be cereal boxes, dry food boxes, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls. NO Styrofoam egg cartons, waxed aluminum foiled or plastic coated boxes, such as milk, juice cartons, frozen food cartons, etc. If the pkg has inside chipboard it can be recycled. NO pizza boxes, boxes with grease or food residue, or packing materials. 

Glass bottles – only clear, green or brown. NO ceramics, dishes, drinking glasses, light bulbs, mirrors, Pyrex, window glass or any glass that is not a container. 

Plastic bottles & jugs – The neck of the container must be smaller than the base or widest part. NO bottle caps or tops, containers that are not bottles, such as deli or yogurt containers, margarine tubs or wide-mouth prescription bottles.

Ask for TWO recycling bins

You might have noticed that some of your neighbors have two bins. This wasn't an accident - the city encourages users to have two bins to help them separate their recycling materials. This lessens the workload for the recycling department down the road, makes the whole recycling process in Winston-Salem more efficient, and ultimately saves taxpayer dollars.

Separate your recycling items into your two recycling bins

The rule of thumb is to keep paper and cardboard products in one bin, and everything else in the other. If you have loose papers, collect them all in a brown paper bag - like the one you get for bagging groceries.

Winston-Salem Recycling Tips and Guidelines

• Do not place any recyclables in plastic bags.
• Empty aerosol cans and remove the lids.
• Remove caps and lids from glass food and beverage jars and bottles and discard. Rinse the jars and bottles.
• Rinse and flatten cans. If you use the type of can opener that leaves a sharp edge on the lid, stop before completely removing the lid and then push the lid down inside the can before flattening it.
• Remove caps from plastic bottles, rinse and flatten. Plastic bottles #1 through #7 are accepted for recycling.
• Remove newspapers from the plastic sleeve before recycling. No plastic bags are accepted.
• Remove the plastic and foil liners from chipboard containers.
• Shredded office paper may be placed in a brown paper bag in such a way as to reduce litter, and placed in the recycling bin.
• Flatten corrugated cardboard boxes and stack them next to the recycling bin.

Keep Winston-Salem and North Carolina Green!

That's it! Might seem like a lot at first but you'll get the hang of it quickly. And if you consider that the people in New York put out enough trash each day to fill the Empire State Building, you start to realize the impact your little recycling efforts have. If everyone recycled and composted instead of throwing everything into the trash, we could cut the amount of trash produced by more than half. You'll probably notice yourself that once you get into recycling, and especially if you decide to compost as well, that you're wheeling your trash can to the street less and less.