City of Rolla

The City of Rolla Recycling Center is a drop-off facility for separated recyclable materials. The facility is owned and operated by the City of Rolla and is accessible to the public seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. When placing recyclables into the appropriate slot or bin, please separate properly and follow any specific instructions posted at the location.

Why should I Recycle?

Americans generate about 222 million tons of trash annually.  On average, each one of us generates 4-5 pounds of trash daily.  When we send all of this waste to landfills they fill up quickly.  Therefore, recycling has become an important part of our waste management system.  By recycling a significant portion of our waste, we save landfill space and get the following benefits in the process:

• Recycling helps conserve natural resources (trees, water, metals, oil, coal) that are used in the production of new products.
• Recycling helps reduce the demand for energy. Less energy is required to produce products from recycled materials than with virgin materials. Consider this: It takes the same amount of energy to make 20 recycled aluminum cans as it take to make one can from virgin materials. That is a 95% energy savings!

TRASHY TRIVIA

• Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees!
• One domestic auto manufacturer uses approximately 50 million soda bottles a year to produce components (grills, bumpers, trunk liners, etc.) for new cars and trucks.
• Recycling scrap steel reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining by about 70%.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum each year to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet.
• The energy saved by recycling one glass jar can power a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
• Much of the paper that you recycle is used to make tissue & toilet paper, paper towels & napkins or construction materials such as gypsum board, insulation, and roofing materials.
• A significant number of plastic soda bottles are used to make new carpet and clothing.

Curbside recycling

Curbside containerThe City of Rolla provides a residential curbside collection service for recyclable materials (within the City Limits.) Participation is voluntary, but is encouraged. The City of Rolla Recycling Center will provide each resident with a blue recycle bin. Recyclable materials should be placed in the recycling bin and placed at the curbside for collection on the same day as the trash container.If you are interested in participating in this program, please call (573) 364-6693 and we will deliver a blue recycle bin to your home, or come by the City of Rolla Recycling Center to pick up your bin today.

Follow these guidelines to help make recycling a positive experience for you:

• When placing your container out for collection, be sure it is easily visible from the street and not obscured by a parked car, shrub, etc.
• Don’t let your recyclables become neighborhood litter. Place heavier items on top of lighter items. Newspaper can be placed in a paper bag and laid on top of your container and serve to hold other materials in place.
• You can use a permanent marker to write your address on the bottom of your container.
• If you move, leave the recycling container at your current address for the next resident to use.
• Try to place your container out for collection only when it is full, not when you only have 1 or 2 items. This will make collections more efficient.
• It is very helpful if you separate your recyclables within the container (e.g., place newspapers in a brown paper bag). However, this is not mandatory.
• Please do not use plastic shopping bags, we cannot collect these at the curb.
• If you find that your recycling container is not large enough to hold your weekly recyclables, other containers can be used. Please call the Recycling Center for suggestions or options.
• Remember that some collection schedules are affected by certain holidays. Call our office at 364-6693 if you have questions.

Environmental Services

The Environmental Services Department consists of the Sanitation, Recycling, and Vehicle Maintenance divisions. The Sanitation Division is responsible for all regular municipal trash pick-up service, for both residential and commercial customers.Sanitation also offers rental of construction dumpsters for contractors or large do-it-yourself jobs, and special pickups of appliances and other large or unusual items.The Recycling Division offers both a drop-off site as well as residential curbside collection of recyclable materials. Drop off service at the Recycling Center is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Recycling Center accepts various types of plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, aluminum and tin cans. Processing of these materials takes place on site, and the material is then sold on the open market. Approximately 3,000 tons of waste per year is kept out of landfills and returned to usable consumer forms through the efforts of the Recycling Division.In addition to these two large divisions, the Environmental Services Department is also responsible for the operation of the City's central Vehicle Maintenance shop, which services City vehicles from all City departments.