Every-Other-Week Curbside Recycling Collection Provided by Haulers

Recycling at the Curb

Residential recycling in Fort Collins is collected by your trash hauler. The City of Fort Collins requires haulers to provide unlimited recycling services for each single-family and two-family residential trash customer as part of their basic trash collection service.

Ask your hauler for a large recycling cart, and be prepared to switch to every-other-week recycling.

How Do I Get Service Started?

The following haulers provide residential curbside trash and recycling service in the City of Fort Collins. Prices and types of recycling containers will vary. Call for more information or to begin service.

• Gallegos Sanitation, Inc. (970-484-5556)
• Ram Waste Systems, Inc. (970-226-3396)
• Waste Management (970-482-6319)

What Can I Recycle at the Curb?

Download and print the one page Residential Curbside Recycling Guide (pdf) for quick reference to what can be recycled at the curb in Fort Collins and how to prepare those materials.

All residential trash and recycling haulers in Fort Collins provide single-stream recycling, and are required by the City of Fort Collins to collect the following items:

Containers

• Clean #1-#7 plastic bottles, tubs and containers (no plastic bags, pesticide or motor oil containers, Styrofoam, microwavable trays or containers larger than 2.5 gallons); click here (pdf) for complete list of acceptable plastics.
• Glass bottles and jars of any color (please avoid breaking glass; remove and recycle metal lids)
• Aluminum cans (don't crush or flatten cans)
• Aluminum foil (clean only, please flatten)
• Steel (tin) cans
• Metal jar lids (please remove from glass containers.)
• Metal bottle caps
• Empty aerosol cans (no caps)

Paper

• Office paper (including computer, copier and plain fax paper; pastel colored paper; please, NO neon or other bright paper)
• Newspapers and newspaper inserts (NO PLASTIC BAGS)
• Magazines and catalogs
• Opened mail (please open your mail to remove any promotional stickers, credit cards, membership cards, or other non-paper items)

Cardboard and paperboard

• Corrugated cardboard (packing boxes and pizza boxes)
• Brown paper grocery bags
• Paperboard (cereal boxes, clothing boxes, egg cartons)

Fort Collins haulers have agreed on uniform preparation guidelines for cardboard to ensure the materials can be efficiently collected.

1. Cardboard should not exceed 2’ x 2’ in size (oversized pieces must be cut down)
2. Items must be placed inside the recycle bin (additional bins available by calling your hauler), or in a box equal to or smaller in size than the bin itself
3. Boxes must be broken down along the folds (please do not smash them flat)
4. Remove all materials, packaging, and other items from inside the boxes
5. Pizza boxes are allowed as long as all food particles are removed

Missed pick-ups? Call your hauler.

Tips for curbside recycling:

• Be sure to put your materials out by 7am on your regular trash day.
• Please prepare materials correctly and only include items accepted through our program. Including additional materials jeopardizes recycling markets and makes processing more costly.
• Many items not collected at the curb can be taken to Drop-off Centers.
• With unpredictable winds, weigh papers down with a rock.
• Step on it! Please flatten plastic gallon jugs and plastic bottles 1 liter or larger. This increases truck capacity, and helps prevent glass breakage.
• Please avoid breaking glass! Glass shards are difficult to sort by color, and even more difficult to market.

Commercial Haulers & Recyclers

The following is a listing of licensed commercial trash haulers & recycling companies in Fort Collins, Ault & Loveland:

• Clean Air Compost (970) 224-4732; commercial pick-up service of food waste and other compostable materials - Fort Collins
• Eco Thrift (970-484-4224; computers and e-waste) -- Fort Collin
• Gallegos Sanitation, Inc. (970-484-5556) -- Fort Collins
• Hageman Earth Cycle (970-221-7173; yard waste) -- Fort Collins
• National Recycling Inc (970-493-7478) -- Fort Collins
• Professional Document Management (970-493-2455;paper & cardboard) -- Fort Collins
• Waste Management of Northern Colorado (970-674-2500) -- Ault
• Waste-Not Recycling (970-669-9912) -- Loveland

More Information:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Prevent Contamination When Recycling Glass Bottles (pdf)
• Stop Junk Mail (pdf)
• Stop Unwanted Telemarketing Phone Calls (pdf)
• Things You Can Do at Home and the Office to Reduce Waste (pdf)