If you live in Detroit, recycling is super easy! They offer the FREE recycling containers. All you have to do is fill out a super quick online form, which can be found here OR here.
What is Recycling?
Recycling is the process of collecting and changing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash, and turning them into new products.
We Get to Help by Recycling
I never really paid much attention when it came to recycling, but once we moved into our home and the option was available, and free, we signed right up. We already have to take the trashcan to the curb… what’s another container? That’s easy.
Before we got our recycling container, our trashcan would be full all the time because along with our regular trash, the things that could have, or should have been recycled, weren’t; therefore, more trash. Once we got our recycling container, a nice amount of what we use can be recycled, so now, we might have 2, maybeeeee 3 trash bags in the trashcan each week.
Inside our house, we have our regular trashcan for trash, and a smaller one right next to it, for recycling. The one for recycling DOES not get a bag, because you aren’t supposed to bag your recyclables. We don’t use the lid for our recycling container, but you can. When the inside bin gets full, we take it outside and pour that into the big blue container the city supplied. The trashcan I use for recycling is here, but similar options are here or here (step-on with lid).
Recycling comes every 2 weeks; or every other week to get dumped. Our recycling container is almost always full at pickup. There are times where there may be only a few things in our recycling container for the 2 weeks, but even that is better than tossing EVERYTHING.
What TO Recycle
Quick note: DON’T BAG YOUR RECYCLABLES… Just throw them in the container. If they are bagged, un-bag them and toss them in the recycling container loosely.
• RINSE/CLEAN containers, bottles, jars, cans BEFORE recycling
–PAPER & CARDBOARD – flattened boxes, cereal boxes, paper, newspaper, magazines, junk mail, construction paper, toilet and paper towel rolls, cartons (you know, like the paper box milk comes in when you’re in school, juice cartons, chicken broth cartons, etc…)
–PLASTICS – Must have the number a number from 1-7 in a recycling triangle on it. Bottles (milk jugs, pop bottles, laundry detergent bottles, shampoo bottles), tubs (not bathtubs) (yogurt tubs, ricotta cheese, cream cheese, or cottage cheese tubs), containers (plastic Tupperware type containers, butter containers)
–GLASS & METAL –cans (vegetable cans – canned goods, pop cans, aerosol – lysol cans – just remove the top first), clean foil, bottles (glass pop bottles, spaghetti/pasta sauce containers, etc…)
Recyclables with the greatest impact are bottles, cans, paper and cardboard according to Waste Management’s site.
What NOT to Recycle
Juice boxes like Caprisuns, paper towels, plastic utensils (forks, spoons, knives), food, plastic bags (the bags the use to bag your groceries, sandwich bags, chip bags, etc), candy wrappers, used paper plates, styrofoam.
•DO NOT recycle other glass items such as windows, Pyrex, ceramics, or kitchenware like cups
•Plastic grocery bags– They jam up the machinery that sort our recyclables
•Garden hoses, electric cords, string lights, and other wire items should NOT be in your recycling cart. These items get tangled up in the recycling sorting equipment
•Clothes, rags, shoes, and other textiles (various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types) cannot be recycled curbside.
• Batteries, electronics, and other small appliances –Putting these items in your curbside cart is dangerous! – Drop these off at Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 2000 E Ferry St., Detroit
https://detroitmi.gov/webapp/curbside-recycling-cart-challenge – a short quiz for you to take after watching a video – click the arrow down on the yellow bar. This is one link, but through this one you have to either pay $25 for the container, take the quiz and then request a free cart, or go through a workshop.
The Recycling container is FREE in Detroit
The recycling container is FREE FREE FREE and I don’t think a lot of people or enough people know that it’s free. The FORM for you to get your FREE recycling container is very simple. It asks you a few questions and you get your container shortly after. The form can be found here OR here (the second link is just the open form after you click the first link).
Questions on the Form to get Your FREE Recycling Container in Detroit
- Your location: Here you will supply your address by typing it in the box. Press next.
- Select your household type : Single-family home, duplex, or apartment building with 4 or less units. Press next.
- They want to know how you heard about the program – Choose your option. Press next.
- Enter your contact information : First name, last name, phone number
- Press create request (submit)
Text Message Reminders – An option
Once you receive your recycling container, you may want to sign up for text reminders for trash and recycling. If not, then you just know that every other week they pick up recycling. To sign up for the reminders, you will text your street address to 313-880-7905. So, you would open your messaging app and start a new message. The message contains your home address ( example : 5960 Lincoln St., Detroit, MI 48202 ) and the phone number you send it to is (313-880-7905). Each week they tell you whether it’s trash only, or trash, recycling, yard waste and bulk pickup.
-Sometimes they add additional info to the texts.
If we have too much stuff in our recycling container
Sometimes our recycling container will get full before the 2 weeks, so I’ll start a bag inside the house if the container we have in the house is full because the outside container is full, or we may just toss it… blah.
For those HUGE boxes you get a tiny item from Amazon or Walmart in, maybe a tv box that will take up the whole container after its dumped or after Christmas gifts or birthday gifts have been opened, we’ll pack it into the car and take it to the recycling center in Southfield, right at 8 Mile & Evergreen – RRRASOC (Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County). One side of 8 mile is considered Detroit and the other side, Southfield. This is basically the West side of Detroit’s recycling center. 20000 W Eight Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48075.
Recycling Centers
RRRASOC – Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County.
West side – 8 Mile & Evergreen
20000 W Eight Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48075
Recycle Here! ( The name of the recycling center )
Downtown Detroit – near Motown Museum, Henry Ford Hospital and Wayne State
5960 Lincoln St., Detroit, MI 48202
Commercial Recycling Program
A recycling program for businesses and multifamily (5 or more units) buildings.
-{ The form and program I talk about in this blog post is only for single-family homes, duplexes, and apartment buildings with only 4 units or less.}
-For information on the recycling program for bigger buildings or businesses (commercial recycling), click here (make sure you scroll down on the page past the box for the form… there’s a bit more info after the gap).
-You will need to fill out a form or contact the Recycling Coordinator – Madi Kraus at 313-224-9404 or Madison.Kraus@DetroitMi.gov . DetroitRecycles.org has links
Other types of drop-off locations
https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/refuse-collection/bulk-yard-waste/free-citizen-bulk-drop-centers
https://detroitmi.gov/departments/general-services-department/free-dumping-detroiters
DPW Southfield Yard
12255 Southfield
Bulk & Yard Waste
Mon-Sat
Apr 1 – Oct 31 • 8 am – 6 pm
Nov 1 – Mar 31 • 8 am – 4 pm
DPW Davison Yard
8221 W Davison OR 7901 W Davison – both of those addresses show up in the same place in my maps app – One link says one address, the other link says the other.
Mon – Sat
Apr 1 – Oct 31 • 8 am – 6 pm
Nov 1 – Mar 31 • 8 am – 4 pm
DPW J. Fons Yard Transfer Station
6451 E. McNichols
Bulk & Yard Waste
Mon & Fri • 8 am – 4 pm / Sat • 8am – Noon
Cost: Free for Detroit residents!
Bring: Identification (driver’s license, state ID or Detroit ID)
Accepts: Up to 1,000 lbs of yard waste/bulk waste and 4 tires per household per day
Does NOT accept: Household garbage, remodeling or construction debris, car or truck parts, hazardous waste
No commercial vehicles allowed
Paid Construction Waste Drop-off option at J. Fons Yard
-Paid Construction/ Remodeling and Household Garbage
Mon- Fri • 7 am – 5 pm / Sat • 7am – 1pm
Cost: $65 for first 1,000 pounds and $50 for each additional 1,000 pounds.
-Does NOT accept tires, paints, liquid, or hazardous waste
Household Hazardous Waste Receiving Facility
2000 E Ferry
Thur 7:30am-2pm / Every 4th Saturday 8am-2pm
ACCEPTS: tv’s, pharmaceuticals, motor oil, paint, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, pesticides, etc…
DOES NOT ACCEPT: household garbage, bulk, or yard waste
Thank you for checking out my blog post!
Get more info:
• https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/refuse-collection/free-recycling-container-form – Free container form
• https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/refuse-collection/detroit-recycles
• https://www.greenlivingscience.org/about – A company created through Recycle Here! (one of the drop-off recycling centers). They want to increase recycling participation for Detroiters. They provide recycling and environmental education.
• https://detroitmi.gov/departments/department-public-works/refuse-collection/detroit-recycles – through this link they make you play a game/take a quiz or attend a workshop to get a free recycling container, or you can pay a one-time fee of $25 to get the container.
Published February 8th, 2024
