Frequently Asked Questions

The recycling industry throughout the country is changing, with costs rising due to a variety of reasons, including world market trends, increased material standards and required volumes. In order to keep the Town of Fort Mill’s recycling program running and to reduce costs, the Town has arranged for our third-party collector, Waste Pro USA, to take recyclables to York County’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF) beginning September 1.

The York County facility accepts most recyclables including mixed paper, chipboard (such as cookie, cracker or drink boxes), cardboard, magazines, office paper, steel cans, and aluminum cans/pans/foil, and plastic jugs, jars or bottles with their lids on. However, the facility does not accept glass, as well as other forms of plastic (such as bags, berry containers or tubs).

As glass breaks down during the transportation process, the shards and particles not only affect sorting machinery, but they can also get stuck in the other items, essentially contaminating them. Once that happens, the MRF will reject the entire load and send the items to a landfill instead. Therefore, glass cannot be co-mingled with other items in the recycling cart.

Glass Centers

However, customers will still be able to recycle glass food and beverage bottles, jugs and jars at one of York County’s Solid Waste Collection and Recycling Centers. Two are located in Fort Mill:

1. Baxter Center at 1731 Highway 160
2. Fort Mill East Center at 1390 East Hensley Road at Fort Mill Parkway

When customers bring their glass items to the centers, they can deposit them in bins designated solely for glass. From there, the glass is transported to the York County Public Works campus in York, where it is stored until truckload quantities are collected for shipment.

When plastic bags are co-mingled with other recyclables, they can become tangled inside collection and recycling machinery. This can cause damage and slow down the recycling process. As such, plastic bags are not accepted for recycling. Please do not place loose bags inside your recycling cart and do not place bags filled with recyclables in the recycling cart. However, clean and dry bags may be taken to local grocery stores for recycling.

The following items should not be placed in recycling carts:

• Antifreeze
• Batteries
• Bulbs
• Carpets
• Clothes
• Construction materials
• Cooking oil
• Electronics
• Linens
• Motor oil
• Paint
• Propane tanks
• Scrap metals (such as bicycles, mowers, appliances)
• Shredded paper
• Styrofoam
• Tires
• Wax-coated paper (such as paper milk or juice cartons)
• Yard debris

Many, but not all, of these items can be taken to a designated Collection and Recycling Center. For more detailed information about items accepted at the York County Collection and Recycling Centers, please visit the York County Solid Waste Collection and Recycling website.

Pizza boxes can be placed in recycling carts, though you must remove all food from inside the box, including greasy liners. As for labels, there is no need to remove them from cans or bottles you place in your recycling cart. The recycling process will either wash or melt the labels off the containers.

Plastic containers without lids are acceptable, but to make sure the lid gets recycled, leave it on the container. Lids are so small that they will fall through the sorting equipment and be thrown away.

Just make sure to rinse the items to remove any and all food or drink residue before placing in the cart.

The Town provides sanitation services to all single-family developments, which is a requirement per the Town’s adopted Code of Ordinances. In order to provide those services to our residents at the lowest cost possible, homeowners are required to participate in the program and share in these costs. Included in these services is:

• Curbside collection of household items such as furniture or appliances once per week
• Curbside collection of yard debris, including leaf collection, on a weekly basis
• Household garbage collection in a 95-gallon roll cart once per week
• Recycling services collected in a 95-gallon roll cart every two weeks

Please note that certain restrictions do apply to those collections, for example the Town cannot collect hazardous materials, construction debris, or electronics and other miscellaneous items as a part of these services, though York County hosts a Household Hazardous Material Collection and Shredding event on the first Saturday of March and October from 8 am to noon at 220 Public Works Road in York, South Carolina.

For specific questions on what can and cannot be collected, please contact the Town’s Public Works Department at 803-547-7158. For more detailed information about items accepted at the York County Collection and Recycling Centers, please visit the York County Solid Waste Collection and Recycling website.