Background
“The Biggest Little City in the World,” Reno (pop. 231,027), has increased its efforts to help its residents properly recycle. The city’s
AT&T Recycling Guide appears both online and in the city’s Yellow Pages. The guide is quite the extensive resource for the Reno/Sparks, Carson City and Lake Tahoe/Truckee areas, detailing recycling drop-off centers, recycling do’s and don’ts, county landfill sites and much more.
Though most of the city still utilizes multiple bins to sort its curbside-appropriate recyclables, a small section of the northwest side tried a single-stream recycling pilot program briefly in 2007-08. Citywide implementation still seems out of reach at this time.
Materials recycled
Reno’s curbside recycling program utilizes a two-bin system, with yellow and green bins, as well as city-approved paper bags for paper goods.
Yellow bins - Aluminum cans and containers (flattened)
- Iron cans (aerosol accepted; no caps)
- PET (#1) plastic containers
- HDPE (#2) plastic narrow-neck containers (milk and water bottles) and pigmented narrow-neck containers (detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, etc.; no caps/lids)
Green bins
- Glass food and beverage containers (clear, green, brown; remove caps/lids)
Brown paper bag (not accepted during wet weather)
- Newspaper, catalogs, magazines, mail, telephone books
Frequency
Curbside pick-up occurs every other week on regular trash pick-up day according to the neighborhood schedule. Residents receive notice of which weeks to place recyclables curbside at the beginning of the calendar year.
Other programs
A number of
household hazardous waste programs exist in the area, as detailed in the AT&T Recycling Guide. The counties encompassing the Reno/Sparks, Tahoe/Truckee and Carson City metro areas have all of the resources one would expect to safely rid your home of unneeded burdens like used motor oil, old batteries, light bulbs (including broken ones), food waste and more. The counties also offer convenient drop-off locations in many areas. See the guide’s map for full details.
The State Department of Agriculture hosts a free pesticide disposal program, accepting items like insecticides, herbicides and rodent bait. Programs for electronics and Christmas tree recycling are also in place. See the city website for more information.
More information
Visit the
City of Reno, NV, website for more recycling program info.
NevadaRecycles.gov details many programs in the surrounding areas.
