News Flash

June 19, 2017 – Hampton residents can now recycle most types of plastic containers, allowing families to put more into their recycling bin and less into the trash. Plastic bags and plastic wrap still cannot be recycled, but any type of rigid plastic can be placed in household recycling bins.

Last year, milk cartons, juice boxes and other waxed cardboard were added to the list of recyclables.

Any resident can get a second recycling bin. Households cover the cost of the $70 bin, but there is no additional fee for bi-weekly collections. Call 311 (757-727-8311) for more information.

Drop-off recycling sites are also available: at Gosnold’s Hope Park, Briarfield Park and the city’s yard waste recycling site off Big Bethel Road.

Please do not recycle any container that has held paint, motor oil, pesticides or fertilizer – regardless of what it is made of. Those can contaminate other items during the recycling process, forcing the batch to be discarded rather than recycled. Also, items with food remains should not be recycled.

Hampton’s household trash is burned to create steam for NASA Langley, but the remaining ash still has to go to the landfill. More recycling will prolong the life of the city’s landfill.

Here’s a list of what can (and can’t) be recycled:

• Metal: Steel food and beverage cans, aluminum cans, pie pans, foil
• Glass: All colors of bottles and jars (NO light bulbs, windows, large sheets of glass)
• Cardboard: Single-ply, corrugated, waxed, egg cartons, clean pizza boxes
• Paper: Mail, newspapers and ads, magazines, office paper, brown paper bags, phone books
• Plastics: Soda bottles, milk jugs, detergent containers, plastics labeled #1 and higher, plastic lids (BUT not on bottles; must be loose)

NO plastic bags, needles, food, diapers, Styrofoam, yard waste

Yard waste, such as leaves and grass, can be commercially composted if it is placed in a CLEAR bag at the curb (NOT in the recycling bin). If it’s in a black plastic bag, Public Works can’t tell what’s inside and will have to take it to the landfill with bulk trash.