Recyclables should be placed in a City-provided container. Large, flattened cardboard may be placed next to the container once the container is full. If the container is not full, please break down cardboard to fit it inside the container. To join the recycling program at no additional cost to your waste services, call (937) 428-4782.   

Recycling FAQ from Rumpke

Recycle Right Program

“Recycle Right” Program Focuses on Reducing Contamination
Containers checked one-by-one in program organized every two years

Recycle Right Frequently Asked Questions

Contaminated recycling risks injury and equipment damage and can drive up program costs for customers. This is why the City of Centerville is launching a summer-long campaign to reduce contamination and teach residents about smart recycling.

“Centerville staff is always eager to learn new ways to increase effective recycling participation. We have a longstanding commitment to recycling which includes our container program and a strong relationship with Rumpke,” Mayor Brooks Compton said.

The City organizes the Recycle Right program every two years. The 2023 program included Monday recycling customers in Hyde Park, Red Coach North and Glenmina. Wednesday’s customers include Black Oak South (Brainard Woods), Walnut Hills, Cheltenham (Penridge), Nestle Creek (Penridge) and Walnut Creek (Penridge).

Centerville City interns execute this public service project as an opportunity to get hands-on experience in the public sector and learn more about a process critical to local government work. This group will be integral to the pre-sorting process in establishing a baseline contamination figure. Interns will spend time across four weeks in June surveying recycling containers and then help with a post-sort audit.

If a visual inspection of containers reveals contaminated recyclables, customers will see an “OOPS” tag on their container handle. The container will not be picked up until the contamination is corrected the following week. The program is not intended to police recycling but to educate the community on which items are and are not accepted. The goal is clean recycling.

Plastic grocery bags, for example, are the biggest culprit. These items can damage equipment by getting tangled at the processing facility. Local retail stores like Kroger and Dorothy Lane Market will recycle used bags if they are dropped off at the stores.

In 2021, the Recycle Right program successfully reduced recycling contamination in the sampling of neighborhoods from 24% to 10%. In 2023, the percentage of recycling contamination dropped from 17% to 13%.

Centerville will mail the attached information cards to all Centerville recycling customers, reminding them of items that can be recycled at facilities owned by Rumpke. This includes Rumpke’s most recent addition of disposable paper, plastic and aluminum cups.

Rumpke's 5 Tips to Make Your Recycling Count

1. Put items in your recycling container loose!
No plastic bags. Don’t place material inside plastic bags. Don't place empty plastic bags in your recycling. Plastic bags aren’t accepted in our recycling programs, but you can take them back to many area grocery/retail stores.

2. Avoid “tanglers”.
Items like clothing, bed sheets, garden hoses, chains, ropes, dog leashes and Christmas lights should not be placed in your recycling. These “tanglers” wrap around the automated sorting equipment and cause damage.

3. Look at the list, not the label. 
Virtually everything has a recycling symbol; however, that doesn’t mean an item can be recycled everywhere. An item’s recyclability is determined by many factors.

4. When it comes to plastic, examine the shape of the container, not the number.
Currently, Rumpke accepts plastic bottles, and jugs, which are containers that have a top smaller than the bottom and often have a screw on lid. The company also accepts plastic tubs, yogurt containers and fruit cups. Plastic Tubs Fact Sheet 

5. Cans CAN be recycled.
When it comes to metal and aluminum, only put the cans in your recycling container. While other types of metal can be recycled, you should take those non-can items directly to a specialized metal recycler.

When in doubt – Ask Rumpke!
Rumpke is here to help. Send them your recycling questions via Facebook, Twitter, email or phone.

You can learn more about smart recycling from Five Rivers Metroparks.

Watch this video about how to recycle right from a zero-waste Centerville resident! 

The City of Centerville is partnering with our Kroger stores to encourage more families to recycle plastic bags. While you cannot put certain plastics in the recycling container at your curb, you can take them to a Centerville Kroger store - no matter where the plastic is from!