Residents

Recycling

Each year, Hamilton County residents recycle approximately 33,500 tons of material through curbside and drop-off programs. The Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District provides residents and community leaders with tools to increase residential recycling.

Recycling in your Community – The majority of Hamilton County communities have some type of recycling program. To find out how to start recycling in your community and for a list of what is recyclable, click here.
Recycling Drop-offs – Do you live in an apartment or a community without curbside recycling? Hamilton County is home to over 50 recycling drop-off sites. To find a recycling drop-off close to your home, click here.
Waste Reduction – Learn easy ways to reduce waste at home, school, and work, click here.
Recycling Process – Find out what happens to your recyclables after you place them at the curb, click here.
Benefits of Recycling – Learn how recycling benefits the environment and local economy, click here.
Recycling Pledge – Take the pledge to recycle, click here.
Frequently Asked Questions – Find answers to your questions about recycling and waste disposal, including what material is recyclable in our area and how to properly dispose of waste products such as hazardous waste, click here.
Recycling in Condominiums and Apartments – Receive free assistance developing recycling programs in multi-family dwellings, click here.
Community Recycling Rates – Find out how much your community recycles each year, click here.
Treasure Chest – Find local non-for-profit organizations that can use your donations of used or unused materials, click here.
Container Loan Program – Learn how to integrate recycling at your community’s outdoor festivals, click here.
Award Winning Communities – Learn about communities that have received awards from the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District, click here.

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Household Hazardous Waste

What is Household Hazardous Waste?
Many of the items you use everyday in home improvement projects, lawn and garden care, and automobile maintenance can be hazardous to your health and the environment if disposed of improperly. Typical hazardous products include pesticides, automotive products, home improvement products (varnish, stain, paint thinner, paint stripper, adhesives), and cleaning products (drain cleaner, pool chemicals, ammonia, bleach). The average home contains 60 to 100 pounds of hazardous chemicals.

To determine if a product is hazardous, check the label for key words like caution, warning, dangerous, and poison.

Why should I properly store and dispose of hazardous products?

Household hazardous products pose a threat when improperly stored or disposed.

Household poisonings are the second leading cause of death related to injury in Hamilton County (tied with firearms).
Throwing away hazardous waste in your garbage can injure your waste collector when hazardous waste reacts with other materials in the garbage truck.
Dumping hazardous waste down the drain interferes with the wastewater treatment process.

Search our database of permanent outlets for your household hazardous waste.

Free Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Program

The free drop-off program will be open March 14 - November 14, 2009. For more information, click here.

Every year, the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District operates a free hazardous waste drop-off program for Hamilton County residents. The program is typically open from March through October.

The Hamilton County Solid Waste District covers 100% of the cost of this service for Hamilton County residents to encourage proper disposal of household hazardous waste. The District pays $28.50 every time a resident drops off waste through this program. We encourage you to reduce your hazardous waste by only purchasing the amount of product you use and purchasing non-hazardous alternatives. To be placed on our mailing list, contact us.

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Computers and Electronics

Computers and electronics are the fastest growing waste streams. More than 100 million computers, monitors, and televisions become obsolete each year in the U.S., according to the Government Accountability Office. In fact, 70 percent of Americans have stockpiles of used or unwanted computers in their home, according to Hewlett-Packard.

Computers contain valuable resources such as copper, aluminum and gold. For this reason, residents are encouraged to recycle their old computers.

There are many outlets for residents to properly recycle their old computers. Click on the following links to find out how:

Hamilton County Sponsored Computer Recycling Event

Greater Cincinnati Computer Recyclers

Computer Manufacturer Take Back Programs

TV Recycling

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Yardwaste

Yardwaste amounts to nine percent of all material entering local landfills.Yardwaste includes leaves, grass clippings, brush, branches, Christmas trees, and prunings. There are several easy ways to recycle yardwaste instead of throwing it away:

Free Yardwaste Drop-off Sites – Three sites throughout Hamilton County where residents can drop-off their yardwaste for free, click here.
Yardwaste Management in your Community – Find out if your community offers curbside collection of yardwaste, click here.
Backyard Composting – Recycle your yardwaste in your backyard. Find out how to start your own compost pile, click here.
Master Composter Classes – Join a class and become a Master Composter, click here.
Compost Demonstration Sites – Experience a demonstration on how to get started, see different types of bins and learn how to maintain a compost pile, click here.
Vermicomposting – Learn how to compost indoors, with help from worms, click here!
Compost Bins – Learn how to make or where to purchase a compost bin, click here.
Yardwaste at Home Handbook – Download the publication, click here.

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Construction & Demolition Debris

View the eight construction & demolition debris (C & D) landfills in Hamilton County. Use these landfills for disposal of unusable debris from construction projects.

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The Treasure Chest

The Treasure Chest is a web-based program featuring the "wish lists" of all participating non-profit organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Goals of The Treasure Chest program:

Increase donations to non-profit organizations throughout the Greater Cincinnati region.

Decrease the amount of reusable material that is sent to local landfills

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Publications

Numerous publications on residential recycling are available for on-line reading or to download for future reference. Visit our publications page to access these.

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