FAQ

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 Garbage pick-up is at approximately 7 am every Thursday morning except when there is a holiday that week. In that case, garbage will be picked up on Friday morning. Your container can be rolled out to the road by the pond anytime on Wednesday afternoon/evening and picked up by Thursday evening.  The garbage man needs at least 2 feet between cans so the claw can pick them up. If they are too close together, he has been known to leave them without emptying them. If your building is sharing trash and recycle containers, the responsibility is also shared. Garbage and recycle cans may not be kept in front of your home unless unit has acquired handicap service from city of Asheville. They must remain out of sight when not set out for pick-up. 

In a push to ramp up recycling the city started its Zero Waste AVL program in 2012, featuring blue single-stream recycling carts.

The bins meant residents no longer had to separate different types of recyclables and could toss in a wider range of materials.

Is it mandatory to recycle in Asheville?

City spokeswoman Polly McDaniel noted that a city ordinance (Chapter 15, Article III) governs recycling. In part, it states, "It shall be the policy of the city to require recycling to the fullest extent possible of recyclable materials designated by the city."  Another section states, "All recyclable materials generated by a household customer shall be separated from municipal solid waste and placed in recycling receptacles for curbside collection or taken to collection facilities."

There are materials the program doesn't accept, such as plastic grocery bags, styrofoam and hard plastics such as toys and flower pots. Those have been appearing with greater frequency, causing problems with processing machinery and hurting sales prices, said Asheville Solid Waste Director Jes Foster.

Increasing contamination and drastic cuts in materials accepted by China is putting a heavy strain on local recycling programs.

China once bought 30-40 percent of percent of recyclables from the United States, but in July 2017 announced it would stop accepting many types of plastics and "foreign garbage," instead focusing on domestic recycling efforts. That has raised questions about the viability of recycling programs across the U.S. and other parts of the world.

"Contaminants like plastic bags can get into loads of recycling that our vendor needs to sell, which can cause a load to be rejected or to earn a lower price," Foster said.

Here's a list of things that SHOULD NOT go into the blue city recycling bins:

• No plastic bags or film (garbage, grocery, zip lock, film)
• No electronic plastic (TV covers, vacuum cleaner covers, video tapes, other small electronics)
• No plastic clothing hangers
• No garden hoses or construction materials (siding, drain pipes etc.)
• No medical or hazardous waste plastics (pill bottles are good all shapes and sizes)
• No  automotive bottles with oils or greases (windshield fluid is OK)
• No black  microwavable trays
• No plastics without a recycling symbol on the containers or tubs
• No Styrofoam
• No packing peanuts
• No plastic bubble wrap
• No compostable chip bags
• No plastic straws
• No plastic six-pack beverage rings
• No video (VHS) or cassette tapes
• No compact discs (CDs, DVDs)
• No PLA containers (Polymerized Lactic Acid plant based)
• No rigid  plastics. Rigid plastic are currently NOT part of the curbside program. We do accept these plastics at Quarterly Local “Hard to Recycle” events 
  • Rigid  plastic examples: plastic trash cans, laundry baskets, storage tubs, toys, pails and buckets, lawn furniture, flower pots, milk crates, large plastic toys (sandboxes, slides, rigid plastic wading pools, play kitchens, etc.) kitty litter buckets, pet carriers & litter boxes, Nalgene bottles, CD and film containers (clear top & black bottom)