Keep North Fulton Beautiful

Keep North Fulton Beautiful is an environmental non-profit that provides education and conservation programs to the communities of Johns Creek and Sandy Springs.We have served our community since our formation as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 1984, and as an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, we share the vision of making our communities cleaner and more beautiful places to live, work, and play.We operate the Sandy Springs Recycling Center on Morgan Falls Rd, and do business as 'Keep Sandy Springs Beautiful' and 'Keep Johns Creek Beautiful.'Our primary focus areas are litter prevention, beautification, waste reduction, water conservation, and environmental education.

Our Mission
'...to educate and activate our community in the beautification and conservation of our environment.'

Sandy Springs Recycling Center located at 470 Morgan Falls Rd.​

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit recycling drop off and collection facility in Sandy Springs, GA open 7 days a week and 360 days of the year. Feel free to bring your recyclable items by anytime, day or night. Be sure to leave payment in the door slot, or pay online, for items we charge for.

Document Shredding

To prevent against identity theft, bring your sensitive documents for secure shredding to the Sandy Springs Recycling Center. Documents will be placed in secure bins that are locked 24/7 inside our office. Eco-Shredding arrives with a shredding truck to shred the documents on-site. All paper is recycled.You can pay by cash, check, or credit card during our operating hours. Please make sure you only have paper documents for shredding. We do not accept any plastic film, binder clips, or cardboard in our secure document shredding bins.

Glass Recycling

Glass recycling seems to be on the minds of many residents recently, after receiving notice that their waste hauler will no longer accept glass in their curbside recycling program.  The good news is that glass can still be recycled at community drop off facilities, such as the Sandy Springs Recycling Center.The reason behind this recent change in curbside recycling has to do with market prices and changes in the way recycled materials are processed. Over the past decade, most residential curbside recycling programs in the metro Atlanta area have shifted to single stream recycling, in other words, all of the recycling goes into a single bin and is sorted out at a regional facility. Single stream collection increases convenience and participation rates in curbside recycling programs, but it poses challenges for the facilities that process the collected materials.

Single stream recycling facilities use a combination of hand sorting and machinery to sort out the items in the truckload, separating cardboard, aluminum, ferrous metals, glass, paper, various plastics, and glass. This sorting equipment uses conveyer belts, magnets, optic eyes, rollers, blowers and other sophisticated technology to sort the materials.Glass is one of the materials that can cause trouble for a single-stream system. Glass is abrasive, and can damage the sorting equipment. It also breaks into sharp pieces, can injure workers, and mixes in with other items such as paper and plastic, contaminating the other materials so that a large percentage of otherwise recyclable material ends up going to a landfill.

Complicating the issue is the fact that market prices for materials are recessed due to global economic factors such as a strong dollar overseas, low oil prices that drive down the price of manufacturing plastic, and overproduction of steel in Asia. Technology is available for processing facilities that can decrease contamination and increase recovery of glass, but it requires a capital investment. Few single stream processors are willing to take on that cost when markets are deflated, and they are having to pay to sort and dispose of items incorrectly placed in curbside recycling bins.There are viable markets for recycled glass in Georgia; it is used as feed stock for bottles and jars, or made into fiberglass. Recycling glass containers helps protect natural resources, helps Georgia’s economy, and diverts material from landfills. So it’s a good thing to recycle glass, but it’s best not to include it in the curbside bin.Tips for curbside recycling: Unfortunately, people often place inappropriate items in the curbside recycling bin, and sorting facilities have to remove by hand a lot of materials that could damage the single stream equipment, such as rope, garden hoses, plastic toys, food, textiles, metal pipes, and even needles. Never put these items in your curbside recycling bin. 

Curbside Recyclables

• Aluminum Cans
• Cardboard & chipboard
• Glass Bottles & Jars (Clean food grade only)
• Magazines
• Newspaper
• Paper: Office & Classroom
• Phone Books
• Plastic #1, #2, & #5
• Plastic Grocery Bags
• Scrap metal (steel, iron, brass, copper, aluminum)
• Shrink Wrap & Bubble Wrap
• Steel & Tin Cans 
• Batteries of all types (please tape terminals for our workers’ safety)
• Cell phones
• Computers & Accessories (monitors incur a fee)
• Inkjet and Laser Printer cartridges
• Miscellaneous Electronics

We accept at no charge:

• Batteries, especially rechargeable, NiCad, Lithium, button cell, and automotive batteries. Alkaline (single-use) batteries can be safely disposed of in your normal trash.
• Cell phones
• Computers & Accessories (monitors incur a fee)
• Inkjet and Laser Printer cartridges
• Miscellaneous Electronics​
• Microwaves are accepted as scrap metal