Request a Free Recycling Cart!

Want to upgrade your plain ‘ol recycling bin to a 65-gallon recycling cart on wheels — for free? Of course you do! If you live in unincorporated Gwinnett County, you can now call your hauler to request a 65-gallon cart to replace your existing recycling bin. Find your hauler below and call today!

• Advanced Disposal (now Waste Management): 678-684-1493

• Republic Services: 678-963-2800

• Sanitation Solutions: 770-886-7323

• Southern Sanitation: 770-554-6450

• Waste Pro: 770-451-9395

Don’t know your hauler? Call Gwinnett County Solid Waste Management at 770-822-7141 to request the cart.

By switching to a cart, you’ll enjoy a little more convenience — no longer having to lift the bin and carry it to the end of your driveway — and you’ll help the recycling system at large. Waste collectors have one of the most dangerous jobs in America, and carts protect them by allowing them to stay in the cab, safe from traffic, and minimize manual lifting and twisting. Covered carts shelter paper and cardboard from wet weather that can soak them and make them non-recyclable, and contain lightweight items so they don’t blow away and create litter. Carts also allow you to recycle much more: On average, a total of 450 pounds of recyclables per year! This makes recycling even better for the environment, since the trucks will be driving through your neighborhood anyway.

Says Cody Marshall of the Recycling Partnership, an organization that promotes access to recycling throughout the country and helps communities adopt cart-based recycling programs, “Cart-based recycling increases the amount of recyclables collected. David Alloway with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality always says that the purpose of recycling is to reduce pollution and conserve resources. The more we recycle, the more we reduce pollution and conserve resources. It’s directly connected to greenhouse gas, water and energy savings. The 433,000 carts the Recycling Partnership has deployed over the past four years equates to 164,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided.”

When you get your covered recycling cart, or even if you decide to stick with a bin, be sure to keep it free of contaminants. Take a visual quiz on recycling contamination!

About Gwinnett Recycles: Gwinnett Recycles is focused on helping Gwinnett County, the second-largest county in the state of Georgia, reduce, reuse, compost, and recycle more material and keep waste out of landfills and the environment. Gwinnett Recycles is run 100% independently by citizen volunteers. To connect with us and support our efforts, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to our newsletter, and consider volunteering with us!

About author Laura

Laura A. Hernandez is the founder of Gwinnett Recycles, a grassroots community organization focused on trash, and is a co-founder of Come Clean Gwinnett, a large Facebook-based community group that empowers citizens to reduce litter and blight. After serving for four years as a Mayor-appointed member of the Sustainable Norcross Commission, Laura went on to become the Chairwoman's appointee to the inaugural Gwinnett Sustainability Commission, which she led as chair. Laura hates to see anything go to waste and believes that Gwinnett County's more than one million residents can make a big impact by reducing, reusing, composting, and recycling right.