Frequently Asked Questions

Single stream recycling allows for the recycling of everything acceptable (glass, plastic, metal, aluminum and paper) to be set out all together in the same container and on the same day. It also increases the items that can be recycled at curbside, including all numbers of plastic containers (i.e. beverage and food, laundry soap, dish soap, peanut butter jars, margarine tubs, yogurt containers), rigid plastic items (lawn furniture, plastic coolers, drinking cups, 5-gallon buckets, flower pots, nursery pots, garbage cans, plastic toys), glass food and beverage bottles and jars and metal and aluminum cans, aluminum foil, aluminum disposable bakeware, empty aerosol cans, and milk and orange juice cartons.

Yes, the trash collectors pick up the recycling as well as trash from their customers. Alternatively, county residents who do not subscribe to a curbside trash collection service can bring their recyclables, free of charge, to the Harford Waste Disposal Center located at 3241 Scarboro Road, in Street.

Please contact your trash collector for the pickup day of your address. The residential trash collectors in Harford County are: 

Bartenfelder Sanitation Services, 410-420-9220 
GFL Environmental, 410-457-0404
Harford County Trash Services, 443-841-6253
Republic Services, 800-284-7056  

Note: Harford County licenses, but does not endorse, trash collectors. If you encounter a firm not on the list above, please contact Harford County’s Solid Waste Management at 410-638-3637.

Providing recycling containers is not economically feasible because of the expense involved, however, to make recycling convenient for residents, there is considerable flexibility in how recycling can be set out for collection. Recyclables may be placed together and set out in a variety of containers such as spare trash cans, new trash cans, corrugated cardboard boxes, even laundry baskets. They could also be placed together in paper bags for collection. Plastic bags, however, may not be used or disposed with the recyclables. Plastic bags foul up the single stream recycling processing equipment.

Plastic bags create problems for the machinery used in the separation process so we are requiring residents not to place plastic bags in with curbside recyclables. Most grocery stores in Harford County accept plastic bags for recycling. Look for the bag container at the front of the store. Please be sure there is nothing left in the plastic bags and that it is dry. We encourage everyone to begin using the re-usable grocery sacks also available from many sources.

You may put out all plastic containers with the number designations (1 through 7) on the bottom of the container, including narrow-necked and wide-mouthed, as well as rigid plastic such as toys, coolers, lawn furniture, drinking cups, garbage cans, laundry baskets, buckets, nursery pots, and flower pots.

Recycling is picked up at curbside by your trash collector and brought to the Harford County Recycling Transfer Station at the Harford Waste Disposal Center, where they are loaded onto tractor trailers and transported to a processing facility in Baltimore County. The segregated material is then sent to secondary market vendors who process the material into re-usable products. Plastic is used to manufacture new containers, carpeting, and fleece clothing. Paper is used to make newsprint. Cardboard is used to make new cardboard and other packaging material. Glass is used to make new glass containers and fiberglass insulation. Aluminum cans are used to make new aluminum cans. Tin cans are used to make new steel products.

Maryland law requires that all apartment and condominium communities with 10 or more units provide a recycling program for residents. For more information, please contact the Office of Recycling at 410-638-3417 or harfordrecycles@menv.com.

Your trash collector also picks up your recycling. Residential trash collectors in Harford County are: 

Bartenfelder Sanitation Services, 410-420-9220 
GFL Environmental, 410-457-0404 
Harford County Trash Services, Inc., 443-841-6253 
Republic Services, 800-284-7056 

Note: Harford County licenses, but does not endorse, trash collectors. If you encounter a firm not on the list above, please contact Harford County's Solid Waste Management at 410-638-3637.

Landfill space is filling up. Why landfill when there are markets for the recyclable items? Recycling saves natural resources and energy and creates less pollution when items are remanufactured using recycled material rather than virgin material.

Recyclable materials can be dropped off at Harford Waste Disposal Center at Scarboro Landfill, 3241 Scarboro Road Street, MD 21154. They accept all recyclable materials free of charge, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also accepted for recycling at HWDC are clothing and textiles, computers, scrap metal, motor oil and antifreeze, ink cartridges, used propane cylinders, and wet cell batteries.

Recycling is accepted free of charge for county residents who bring their recyclables to the Harford Waste Disposal Center at Scarboro Landfill. Charges do apply if the resident also has household trash in the same trip.

Clean newspapers, magazines, and catalogs, junk mail, envelopes (plastic windows okay), phone books, hardback and paperback books, office paper (writing, copy, computer, letterhead, NCR), cardstock/greeting cards, paper bags, paperboard boxes (cereal, frozen food, shoe, etc.), corrugated cardboard, milk, juice, and ice cream cartons and boxes; bottles and jugs (milk, water, detergent, salad dressing, cooking oil, shampoo, spray products, etc.), wide-mouth containers (margarine, yogurt, peanut butter, etc.), disposable plastic cups, plastic toys, plastic lawn furniture, plastic coolers, plastic buckets, trash cans, laundry baskets, flower and nursery pots, aluminum and steel/tin cans (drink, food, and pet food), EMPTY aerosol cans (except pesticide and spray paint), aluminum foil, aluminum foil bakeware, glass, food, and beverage bottles and jars (any color)

No. Yard trimmings (grass clippings, limbs, branches, bushes, leaves) can be brought free to either the Harford Mulch and Compost Facility, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., or the Tollgate Yard Trim Drop Off Facility, 703 North Tollgate Road Bel Air, MD 21014, is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from April through November and Saturdays only from December through March.

If you seem to receive every catalog ever printed and want to help the environment and save a few trees, go to the Catalog Choice website to cancel those unwanted catalogs. It’s actually fun and very user-friendly.

Coroplast (corrugated polypropylene) signs are not accepted for single stream recycling and should be disposed with the trash.