Curbside Pickup
The City of Tyler provides curbside pickup of recycling using large green bins with bright orange lids. West Tyler and most of South Tyler have their recycling picked up on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. East Tyler has its recycling picked up on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. (See map.) For complete details of the recycling program or to sign up, visit the city's Curbside Recycling page.
The funds generated by the City's recycling efforts are not enough to pay for the program operation. We use funds generated by the Solid Waste Commercial Waste business to pay what we are not able to cover through the sale of recyclable materials. The same is true with many other cities in Texas. That being said, the more materials we can collect and sell, the less the recycling program has to depend on supplemental funding from other sources.
We work hard to find ways to support local efforts to use recyclable materials. For example, we sell all of the newspaper, magazines and junk mail that we collect to a local business called Southwest Environmental. They process the paper and use it to create Hydro Mulch, an erosion control material, which is shipped all over the world.
The electronics we collect (computers, peripherals, stereos, etc.) are boxed up and donated to support jobs at Opportunities In Tyler/Goodwill Industries. After a thorough (Department of Defense level) erasing of any disk drives, they send the electronic parts to U.S. companies such as Dell Computers to be used in the manufacture and re-manufacture of computers and other electronics.
Office paper, cardboard, #1 and #2 plastics and our residential recycling collections are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) operated by IESI just outside the east loop.
The glass we collect at the recycling center is hauled by one of our trucks from Tyler to Midlothian. They sell the glass to companies like EnviroGlass who use recycled glass to make mosaic floors, residential countertops and sinks and as part of the material that is used to make cement.
Recycling Collection Center
In addition to curbside pickup, recycling may also be dropped off at the Tyler Recycling Collection Center at 418 North Bois D’ Arc Avenue. Hours vary so be sure to check the Collection Center's web page before you leave.
Where to recycle additional items
- Plastic bags: Brookshire's, Wal-mart
- Compact fluorescent bulbs: Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy
- Batteries: Batteries Plus, Interstate Batteries
