Recycling

Pittsburgh Region

Web resources in recycling for Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania.

General Resources

• Allegheny Couny Health Department Recycling
  Allegheny County Health Department offers a directory of places in Allegheny County which accept various materials for recycling -- from glass containers to polystyrene loose fill. Also lists companies that will haul your recyclables.
  • Recycling Resource Directory
• City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Environmental Services: Recycling
  The Public Works department responsible for recycling posts information for city residents. You can find information on garbage pickup schedules, yard debris, telephone book recycling, fall leaf disposal, appliance dropoff.
  • Mayor’s Green Guide
    "...to help you find the information you need to reduce your impact on the environment, save money and improve your health. This guide includes information on the services provided by the City, as well as resources for getting involved in your community."
• Construction Junction
  Construction Junction is a non-profit retail store specializing in used and surplus building materials located in North Point Breeze. They also have drop off sites for paper, plastics, cardboard, glass, cans, and more. This is a great place for recycling!
• Craigslist Pittsburgh
  Recycle by buying used from other people.
• Pennsylvania Resources Council:
  PRC is a nonprofit citizens' action organization. Under Programs, Community, they have information on collection sites for hazardous waste in the Pittsburgh area.
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Where to donate your items
  Althought the point of this article from January 2, 2008 was how to get rid of your "stuff", the emphasis is on recycling it.
• Zero Waste Pittsburgh
  Zero Waste Pittsburgh is a program of the Pennsylvania Resources Council and was created as a one stop shop for recycling and waste minimization resources and assistance in Southwestern Pennsylvania for businesses, institutions, and special events.

Appliances

• Appliance Warehouse: Disposal
  Appliance Warehouse is a company specializing in the recycling and resale of used appliances on the South Side (523 Bingham Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203).

Bicycles

• Free Ride
  Free Ride! is a non-profit recycle-a-bike shop that enables people of all ages to obtain, recycle, and maintain bicycles. Located at Construction Junction, Free Ride is a project of Bike Pittsburgh!

Books and Magazines

• Pittsburgh Used Books
  This is a list of public libraries and organizations that hold annual and ongoing booksales. Contact them for drop-off locations. Compiled by Margie Spenser.
• Allegheny County Libraries
  Drop off or pick up some used books at library booksales.
• Caliban Bookshop
  A used book store on South Craig Street in Oakland that specializes in Literary First Editions, Fine Arts, Poetry, Exploration & Travel, Americana, Philosophy, General Scholarly, Fine Press, and Leatherbound Editions
• Townsend Booksellers
  Located off of South Craig Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Townsend's offers fine used, rare, out-of-print, scholarly and unusual books in all fields bought & sold.
• BetterWorldBooks
  You can donate your books to BetterWorldBooks and they will pay for the shipping. You can also buy used books online.

Building Supplies

• Construction Junction
  Construction Junction is a non-profit retail store specializing in used and surplus building materials located in North Point Breeze.
• Habitat for Humanity ReStores
  A March 2011 article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about stores set up by Habitat for Humanity that accept donated goods from local retailers, contractors and individuals in the community for resale with a focus on home improvement items such as furniture, home accessories, building materials and appliances.
  • Habitat for Humanity opening ReStore at Pittsburgh's Edgewood Town Center
  • Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity ReStore - Irwin
  • Habitat for Humanity Allegheny Valley ReStore - New Kensington
  • Habitat for Humanity ReStore Directory: Pennsylvania

Clothing and Household Items

• Dress for Success Pittsburgh
  Accepts donations of women's professional clothing to provide the appropriate clothing for disadvantaged women looking for jobs. Works with over 120 organizations.
• Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania
  Information on donating items to Goodwill, what they will accept, including automobiles.
• Light of Life Ministries
  Check their "Ways to Help" and "Special Projects". Holds an annual coat drive each September to collect gently used coats for the needy. Coats can be dropped off at participating dry cleaners. They also run a thrift store which offers pick up service for donations.
• Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse
  Looking for materials for a creative project, a classroom activity, or just for fun? CRP (located at Construction Junction) sells a wide assortment of interesting materials for your creative and practical needs, including leather, linen, cotton and silk.
• Redd Up Thread Up
  Read about this community clothing swap to benefit the Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh in PopCity.
• Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania
  You may donate clothing and household items to the Salvation Army. Included on their website is a Valuation Guide for Donated Items.
• Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary Fabric Fair
  Each April the SA Women's Auxiliary collects and sorts donated fabric, yarn, patterns, kits, craft items, notions and how to books, to sell them at their annual Fabric Fair in the South Park Home Economics Building on Brownsville Road. If you have unused fabric or sewing materials you want to get rid of, contact Leah Horcholic at 412-446-1534 for a list of drop off locations.
• Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Pittsburgh
  Accepts donations of vehicles, furniture, clothing, and household items. St. Vincent de Paul has stores in Monroeville, Sharpsburg, Penn Hills, Coraopolis and Butler.
• Snuggle Bugs Consignment
  Snuggle Bugs & Company is a children's consignment event that takes place each year in the Spring and Fall (March and September) offering high quality, gently used children's clothing sizes Newborn to Youth Size 12 and children's furniture and equipment.

Computers, Televisions, & Electronics

• Pittsburgh Tribune Review: New law makes it easier to ditch used electronics
  Pennsylvania's Covered Device Recycling Act as of January 1, 2012 removes the recycling fee for computers and other devices at approved recycling locations, like A Greenspan and eLoop. In 2013 the law will make it illegal to dispose of such "covered devices," such as TVs or computers, in landfills. Consumers must dispose of such devices at recycling collection sites, starting in January 2013.
• A greenSpan Computer Recycling, Inc.
  A Monroeville company with a processing plant for recycling analog TVs and computer equipment in Turtle Creek. For drop-offs, call 412-628-2824 for updated hours of operation.
• Best Buy: Recycling
  Consumers can bring up to two (2) units per day, per household, for recycling at any U.S. Best Buy store.
• Best Buy Trade-in
  You can TRADE-IN select gently used electronics, including iPods, digital cameras and digital camcorders, for a Best Buy gift card to use towards any purchase at Best Buy.
• eLoop Centers
  eLoop, a Pittsburgh electronics recycling company, has partnered with Construction Junction and other locations to provide a permanent electronic equipment collection site in the City of Pittsburgh. Drop off your old analog TV here for a fee.
• Goodwill Computer Works of South Side
  The Computer Recycling Center solicits donations of PCs and related equipment from corporations, small businesses, educational institutions, health care facilities, government agencies and individuals. They test, refurbish what is usable, disassemble nonfunctioning computers for recycling, and sell refurbished computers to the public and to nonprofit groups.
• Second Life Computer Remanufacturing
  Second Life picks up your discarded computers and monitors and re-manufactures them for use in local non-profits and developing nations.
• Staples Recycling
  You can take your used computers, monitors, laptops, and desktop printers, faxes and all–in–ones to any U.S. Staples store and they will accept it for recycling, regardless of whether or not the equipment was purchased at Staples. A recycling fee of $10 per piece of large equipment is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly and recycling.

Flea Markets

• Allegheny Kiski Valley Historical Society Flea-Tique
  Allegheny-Kiski Historical Society Flea-Tique is open officially on the third Sunday of every month (some vendors are selling there on Saturday) from May through October.

Food and Yard Wastes

• AgRecycle
  Pittsburgh's Agrecycle is Pennsylvania’s leader in organic recycling and the creation of environmentally beneficial soil amendments. AgRecycle partners with food scrap generators to end the wasting of this valuable, recyclable resource and to turn it into usable compost.
• Composting for the Home Gardener
  Resources for turning your food and yard wastes into black gold.

Hazardous Wastes

• Call2Recycle®
  The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) can help you recycle your portable rechargeable batteries. These batteries are commonly found in cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote control toys. RBRC recycles the following battery chemistries: Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion) and Small Sealed Lead* (Pb). Search for a drop off site by zip code.
• Pennsylvania Waste Oil Program
  Don't throw your motor oil down a storm drain.
• Drop Off Sites
  Put in your zip code to find a drop off site for various hazardous wastes, including motor oil.
• Zero Waste Pittsburgh: Household Chemical Collections
  Learn what Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) is and how to dispose of it at hazardous waste collection events. Check here for a date and location for disposing of oil-based paints and paint related products, pesticides, pool chemicals, drain cleaners, and de-greasers and other car care products.

Medical Equipment

• Global Links
  Global Links is a nonprofit organization, headquartered in Pittsburgh, that works with facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio to recover still-useful medical supplies, furnishings and equipment.

Metals

Of the 130 municipalities in Allegheny County, 80 of them have a curbside collection program and 19 have a drop-off program for glass, metals, and plastics.

• West Penn Burn Center: Aluminum Cans for Burned Children
  Aluminum Cans for Burned Children (ACBC) program sends children with burns to camp, helps children with burns return to school, and helps fund outreach programs to keep children from being burned through aluminum can recycling proceeds and through contributions from generous groups of individuals. Don't toss those aluminum cans!

Paper, Newspaper, Junk Mail

• Construction Junction
  Located in Point Breeze, Construction Junction takes paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal.
• PaperRetreiver
  Perhaps you have seen many of the recycling bins that are part of the Abitibi Paper Retriever® Community Recycling Program. They take all kinds of paper, not just newspaper and magazines. Abitibi-Consolidated, a Canadian company, is among the largest recyclers of newspapers and magazines in North America.

Plastic Bags and Plastic

Instead of plastic bags, bring your own reusable bag to the supermarket. Most grocery stores now sell reusable bags (East End Food Co-Op, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Giant Eagle) for about $1. Even the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will sell you a reusable bag for your library books!

• A Bag's Life
  Not only can you recycle plastic grocery bags but also dry-cleaning bags, bread bags and wraps from paper towels, bathroom tissue, napkins, diapers and newspaper bags.
• Aveda: be the change: recycle caps with aveda
  Aveda, maker of hair-care and body products, found that a majority of rigid plastic bottle caps do not get recycled so it mounted a fundraiser program with schools to collect and recycle them.
• Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project
  And when you find yourself accumulating too many of those reusable tote bags, you can donate your extra ones to needy families that pick up groceries at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
• Plastic Loose Fill Council
  The Plastic Loose Fill Council was founded in 1991 to promote the reuse of polystyrene loose fill, commonly known as "packing peanuts". UPS Stores in many communities will accept your packing peanuts.
• PlasticBagReycycling
  An informational site from the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) about reusing and recycling plastic bags. There is more information at Plastics Resource. Check out their recycled plastic products directory.
• ReUseIt! (formerly ReusableBags)
  ReUseIt sells reusable grocery and other types of bags from a variety of vendors. Also check out their plastic bag dryer for those of you who wash and reuse zippered storage bags...(yes, some of us actually do!).

Rainwater

Help rainwater go into the ground, not into storm drains where it can make water and sewage overflow into our rivers. Disconnect your house's downspouts from storm/sewage drains.

• Nine Mile Run Rain Barrels
  The Nine Mile Run watershed at Pittsburgh's eastern border with Edgewood, Swissvale and Wilkinsburg, encourages residents to use rain barrels to catch roof water.
• PRC: Rain Water Harvesting and Watershed Awareness
  The Pennsylvania Resources Council offers workshops in Pittsburgh on making your own rain barrel.
• Build Your Own Rain Barrel
  Here are instructions from several sources.
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation: Build Your Own Rain Barrel
  • Clean Virginia Waterways: Rain Barrels for harvesting rain water
  • Southwest Florida Water Management District: Recycle the Rain (includes a video)
• Rain Barrel Source
  A commercial site with rain barrels from multiple vendors in case you are not handy.

Tires

• Liberty Tire
  This Braddock company recycles tires into rubber mulch.

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Pennsylvania Recycling Resources

• Penn State Housing: Trash to Treasure
  Hats off to this great recycling initiative at Penn State! At the end of the year, when students are clearing out and throw away usable furniture and clothing, Trash to Treasure allows them to donate it. The items are then sold and the proceeds given to the United Way. Every university should do this.
• Pennsylvania's Recycling Page
  from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Management.
• PROP: The Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania
  Pennsylvania's organization for recycling & solid waste professionals

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United States Recycling Resources

Included are sites that will give you some ideas for recycling.

• America Recycles Day
  Celebrate November 15th.
• Basel Action Network (BAN)
  BAN works in opposition to toxic trade in toxic wastes, toxic products and toxic technologies, that are exported from rich to poorer countries. Alternatively, it works to ensure national self-sufficiency in waste management through clean production and toxics use reductions.
• Car Recycling: National Kidney Foundation
  Donate your unwanted car to the National Kidney Foundation by calling 1-800-488-CARS.
• Container Recycling Institute
  A non-profit organization with a mission to make North America a global model for the collection and quality recycling of packaging materials. Look here for studies, data and advocacy.
• EPA: Strategies for Record-Setting Waste Reduction in Multi-Family Dwellings
  This is a brochure from the Environmental Protection Agency encouraging recycling in apartment complexes by pointing out the real cost-savings to the management by decreasing waste-disposal costs.
• Daily Danny
  In this blog, environmental lifestyle expert Danny Seo shows how to take everyday items and transform them into something new.
• Garbage: How can my community reduce waste?
  An Annenberg/CPB Project Exhibit. "If your habits resemble those of average Americans, you generate about 4.6 pounds of solid trash per day. This adds up to big trouble for the environment."
• Green Burial Council
  Instead of embalming and burial in expensive caskets and vaults, consider a green burial in a wood or cardboard box in a natural area. Read more in "Eternally green: Woodland burials are a natural alternative to an embalmed afterlife", a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from January 30, 2008.
• The Miracle Toilet
  Watch this video from the New York Times by Nicholas D. Kristof about toilets set up by SOIL in Haiti for composting sewage that will become fertilizer for farmers.
• ReCORK
  ReCORK is a natural wine cork recycling program, sponsored by Amorim of Portugal, the world's largest producer of natural cork wine closures, SOLE, a leading manufacturer of footwear products, and Amorim Cork America and Portocork America. The goal is to recycle corks and to educate and inform our audiences about the crucial role cork forests play in curbing climate change. There are no dropoff locations in Pennsylvania but they will pay shipping for a 15 lb. box.
• Reuse Development Organization
  Maintains a national directory of used building material centers (Find a Reuse Center).