The list of what I take at drop-offs is shown further below…Everything is free.
MY UPCOMING EVENTS:
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14th. 2151 Dorset Road. 3-6pm. I am returning to Upper Arlington having not been there since Spring and I will close out the UA market season with four weeks in a row. (I do Not accept batteries at this event. The next battery event is 10/24/2026)
THURSDAY OCTOBER 15th. Dawson Ave & Main St. 4-7pm. I am returning to Bexley having not been there since Spring and I will close out the market season with four weeks in a row. (I do Not accept batteries at this event. The next battery event is 10/24/2026)
Sat OCTOBER 24 will be my 16th bimonthly battery event. *I am now accepting All batteries, including Vehicles* as long as they are not leaking Lead-Acid ! Westland Area Library 10am-Noon 4740 W Broad St 43228 i DO take batteries at this event, but due to space limitations I will not have my full educational booth. *You can still drop-off all items at this event. The items list is further below. (The battery event after this one will be in 2027)
Sun OCTOBER 25 INDOORS. Grandview 1600 W. First Ave…behind the high school, in the Larson middle school.. 10am to 1pm. YES this is on Sunday. (I am not taking batteries at this event. The next date I will be accepting batteries will be on 10/24)
Halloween Clintonville
EMAIL me: At the bottom of the page
PAST EVENTS (in 2026)
Westerville 7/11, 8/1, 9/5, 9/19 Repair Cafe 10/10
Bexley FM 5/14, 5/21, 5/28, 6/4 | 10/1, 10/8,
Upper Arlington FM 5/13, 5/20, 5/27, 6/3 | 9/30, 10/7,
Hilliard FM 5/19, 5/26, 6/2 | 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29.
Grandview FM [outdoor] 5/3, 5/10, 5/31 | 7/5, 8/9, 9/6,
Clintonville farmers market 4/25, 5/2, 5/9, 5/16, 5/23, 5/30, 6/6
UA Sustainability Fair 4/11
Westland Library battery 2/14, 4/4, 6/20, 8/15,
Worthington [indoor] market 1/31 Grandview [indoor] market 1/11, 2/22, 3/8, 4/12, 4/26 | 10/11,
PAST EVENTS (in 2025) Total: 51
Grandview [indoor]market 11/9, 12/21/2025
Delaware repair cafe 11/8
Farm Science Review 9/16-18
ArborFest 8/23
Upper Arlington5/14,6/11,7/9, 8/6, 9/3, 10/22
Bexley farmers market 5/15, 6/12, 7/10, 8/7
Pearl market 5/15, 6/5, 7/3, 8/7, 9/4, 10/16
Hilliard 6/3, 7/1, 8/5, 9/2
Grandview(outside)6/1, 7/6, 8/10, 9/7, 10/12
Clintonville 4/26, 5/17, 6/14, 7/12, 8/9, 9/7, 11/1, 11/22.
Westland Library 2/22, 4/19, 6/7, 8/2, 10/18, 12/27
Westerville Repair cafe 3/29
Grandview (indoor) market 3/16 & 4/13
Dublin Community Church 2/15
Shops at Worthington Place 1/25/2025
I created the *only* Recycling Education Outreach Booth (teaching correct local practices) at Events, Festivals & Farmers markets with hands-on examples.
76% of materials in the Franklin County landfill could’ve been reused, recycled or composted. (That’s over 3/4)
YES, YOU CAN RECYCLE THESE ITEMS! HERE’S HOW
Drop-off These Things To ME only, at one of the events listed above…Doing So Will Keep Them Out of a Landfill. Rumpke cannot process these Difficult-to-recycle-items at their facility.
TWIST TIES. Often used to close bags of bread. Much longer ones are used for bunching spinach.
Used aluminum foil. You do not need to clean it. Roll it into a ball and bring it to me.
Scotch tape dispensers. Do not need to remove the adhesive tape.
INK CARTRIDGES These need to be put in a plastic sealed bag like a Ziploc bag, or something like a thick box as the ink tends to leak.
Writing Utensils. Empty pens, dried-out highlighters, permanent markers. These are back on the list since Staples has gotten their sh*t together. Some locations are better than others!
NETTING around some oranges & other foods. Usually red in color. Large plastic labels are okay. (please keep netting from Kroger separate from every other brand name).
KROGER Flexible Packaging, including pouches. All Ten (10) of Their Brands; Simple Truth Organic, Private Selection, Pet Pride, Luvsome, Abound, Home Chef, Comforts (Diapers), HemisFares, Free From & the Kroger brand, including Frozen items from any of them. Flexible packaging basically means Bags. They must be clean and bone dry. (You canNOT take these to stores!)
TRIGGER SPRAYERS (by themselves) Like what is on a bottle of Windex. These are not Recyclable anywhere else, because there is a metal spring inside the plastic. When you have two different materials, metal & plastic, they are contaminants and Hard-to-Recycle. (Put the bottles into your recycling bin, Bring the trigger sprayers to me.)
BRITA Water Filtering. Includes; Pitchers, Filters, Dispensers, Bottles & Faucet Systems. *This collection is Brand Specific, So I Can ONLY Accept Products From Brita.
HYGIENE products; (Any Brand) of USED Toothbrushes, Plastic Razors, *Toothpaste Tubes & Caps, Razor blades, Floss containers and packaging, like the blister pack. THE ONLY DEODORANT TUBES I ACCEPT ARE Tom’s of Maine. IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT BRAND PLEASE RECYCLE DEODORANT TUBES IN YOUR ORANGE BAG. Again, All Brands of Those other items (toothbrushes etc.) Can Be Dropped-off…Also I am Collecting Used Items, Not New Ones. *(preferably empty) if you don’t know what the Orange bag is Email me below.
CORK I take all 3 types. Synthetic, ‘cork with plastic/wood/metal attached’ and natural cork. Some of these will be reused at area schools.
ICYMI most GIFT CARDS (McD’s, KFC, BK etc are now made out of paper, which is good for the environment, however I cannot take those. If you can tear or pull the card apart it is paper not plastic. Ones that are still plastic, like Wendy’s i can accept. Also Make Sure they Are Empty/have no value. ANY Type of Plastic Card Regardless of Their Size, including Credit/Dept store/Shoppers cards, can be cut in pieces or shredded. ***Pro tip: PAPER cards are too small to be recycled curbside, instead put three or four cards in a junk mail envelope, seal it and then put it in the recyclables. Otherwise it needs to be put in your trash can.
LUNDBERG FAMILY FARMS empty & clean bags of Rice products, including chips.
POUCHES. Arm & Hammer baking soda and Oxiclean laundry detergent power paks. Tide and Downy pouches that hold laundry PODS. Entenmann’s Little Bites. All of these are brand specific. (the only exception is Kroger pouches.) See KROGER above.
BREAD BAG TAGS the small square-ish plastic clip to prevent moisture in bread, English muffins etc.
PLASTIC PULL TABS, like the small white kind inside a carton of almond milk
DESICCANT/SILICA GEL anti-moisture packs, those little white ‘envelopes/pouches’ some of them are hard cylindrical plastic. All kinds are accepted.
GLADE, FEBREZE, AIR WICK, RENUZIT, Air Care. ALL brands of air & home cartridges, plugs, spray bottles.
HAIR & SKIN Care. Shampoo/conditioner/lotion, Pumps only. (Put bottles in the recycling bin) Brands: Aussie, Burt’s bees, Cortizone10, Garnier, Gold bond, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Murad, Pantene, Selsun Blue. ***All these need to be clean and BONE dry.
DUNKIN’ Coffee. Flexible ground & whole bean bags. Brand specific
ENTENMANN’S Little Bites pouches
HASBRO – ALL of their Toys; Board games, Plush, Action figures, Nerf, Dolls, GI Joe, Beyblade, Tonka, Trivial Pursuit, Milton Bradley. They have over 135 Toys!…Full list HERE
PET FOOD packaging. Flexible plastic pet food packages from these 6 brands only: Royal Canin, Eukanuba, “I and Love and You”, Wellness, Open Farm, Halo. (See Kroger below, for 3 more pet brands I can take.) ***Pro tip: Pet Supplies Plus is accepting all dog and cat Food bags for no charge even if they weren’t purchased there. Use this option if it’s more convenient for you than waiting for me to have a drop off.
BIMBO Packaging. Bags of Ball Park buns, Thomas’ English muffins, Brownberry-Beefsteak-Rustik Oven bread, Sara Lee, Lenders Bagels etc.*** It will say Bimbo bakeries near the copyright symbol on the ‘tray/box’
VTECH, LEAP FROG, Spin Masters & Hasbro electronic Learning devices by these 4 brands only. And only learning devices, not other types of electronics please.
Used/Broken HAIR DRYERS, CURLING IRONS, STRAIGHTENING IRONS Any & All Brands. This collection was first made possible by EvaNYC (Now you can also take these to the SWACO Convenience Center at 2566 Jackson Pike. They accept anything with a cord, even if you don’t have the cord.)
IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE ‘HEFTY RENEW ORANGE BAG PROGRAM’ IS, EMAIL ME AT THE ADDRESS BELOW AND I WILL EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.
SWIFFER Used Refills from Sweeper, Duster and Wet Jet pads. brand specific. (I would prefer you put both the wet and dry pads into your Hefty ReNew Orange bag program) Please allow the Wet pad to air dry. I have allergies and these dusters add to the problem.
I no longer take these, but you can put them in the orange bag SOLO CUPS (of Any Brand) aka colored Party Cups, They May Have a #6 on the Bottom of the Cup. ***These are ONLY Accepted in Your Curbside Recycling IF you use the Hefty ReNew ORANGE bag.
***CANDY WRAPPERS (I am no longer accepting them because Rubicon, a software company for waste haulers in Lexington, ceased collection.) BUT you can put them in YOUR Orange Bag. Don’t know what the orange bag is? Email me at the address at the bottom of this page. Any kind of candy wrapper you can think of; chocolate bars, starburst, Reece’s, skittles etc. With one exception, do not include Foil of any kind in the Orange bag
OLD SCHOOL 6-Pack Rings, Like What Beer & Cola Cans Were On. Also 8 or 12 Pack Rings, Like Gatorade or Nutritional Shakes are on. (These can also be put into the Hefty ReNew ORANGE bag) i’d prefer that you put them in your orange bag, if you don’t already have one I’ll give you your first orange bag.
‘NEW School’ 6-Pack Rings. They Are Called “Pak-Tech Handles” That Usually Hold Craft Beer Cans and Are Made of a Colorful Plastic That is Thicker & RIGID. The Rings Also Come in 4-Packs…(you canNOT put these in the hefty renew orange bag).
I Moved To Columbus For 3 Reasons: Cbus Moved From Bi-weekly To Weekly Curbside Recycling Pickup, Rumpke Opened a State of the Art Facility in Franklin county & Because Cbus is a Fast Growing City + I have family here.
REDUCE what you can, REUSE what you cannot Reduce, RECYCLE what you can’t Reuse.
ONE TELLS 10 – TEN TELL 100. Please Share on your Social media
If You Have a Recycling Question EMAIL Me: (i respond quickly so look in your Junk mail if it’s more than 2 days) MATTHEWC@ColumbusRecycles.com Better Yet, Stop By in Person at an Event I’m at. It’s One Thing To Tell You Something, But Much Better To Show You With Examples in My Sustainability Booth.
(And regardless which Hauler picks up the garbage at your curb, all of the recyclables go to Rumpke.)
We Don’t Inherit Earth from Our Ancestors, We Borrow It From Our Children.
MatthewC
- Saucy Brew Works on Third Ave, Savor Growl on Indianola Ave, Seventh Son Brewing on 4th St, Perfect Pour in Dublin, The Draft Room in Westerville
