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• Glossary

Recycling

• For Residents and Businesses
• At County Buildings

For Residents and Businesses

When you recycle a plastic bottle at home or a draft report at the office, it may not seem like you're making a huge difference, but all of these small actions add up to a big impact for our environment and our community. Recycling at your home and business may raise questions, such as, "Who manages my recycling pickup?" and "What do I do with items that can't go in curbside pickups?"

How recycling works at your business or home depends on where in the County you live—which city or unincorporated community—and what type of service you're looking for. The County oversees recycling and waste services in certain unincorporated areas, while cities or sanitary districts oversee recycling and waste services in their communities. A few related County services—like the Property and Salvage warehouse where you can buy high-quality used office furniture and other items at reasonable prices, and household hazardous waste drop off locations—are available to all County residents.

Who Does What

StopWaste is dedicated to reducing the waste stream in Alameda County. A public agency, StopWaste provides environmentally sound waste management programs for residents, businesses, and institutions of Alameda County. StopWaste offers programs to reduce the amount of materials going to landfills to reach Alameda County's diversion goal of 75% and beyond. http://www.StopWaste.Org

Cities generally contract for recycling and waste services for residents and businesses. Waste Management is the primary contractor in Alameda County. List of city recycling and waste contacts.

The County's Community Development Agency oversees residential recycling and waste services in certain unincorporated areas.

The County's General Services Agency manages recycling and waste for County buildings.

Recycling paper is a simple action with a huge impact. It takes 17 trees to make a ton of paper.

Why Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

REDUCE

The most effective way to minimize your environmental impact is to reduce consumption of resources. There are no emissions, pollutants or waste associated with what is never created.

REUSE

The next best thing to do is to reuse materials. Sure, resources and energy were used to make that item when it was new, but not when it's used for its second (or more) life.

RECYCLE

Recycling turns what might be thought of as waste into a raw material and conserves natural resources, such as trees and minerals.

Another type of recycling is composting, where green waste, food scraps, food contaminated paper and other compostable materials are turned back into soil. Composting reduces the methane emissions associated with rotting organic material in landfills. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas associated with global warming.

BUY RECYCLED

Buying products made from recycled materials not only reduces the need to mine, drill, and harvest resources like metals, oil, and trees, but also creates markets for all that material you recycle.

Join Alameda County in our efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle, and buy recycled. To see what the County is doing to reduce waste while delivering its integral services, click here.