Will County partners for Recycling Drop-Offs:

• Channahon Township
• City of Lockport(temporary closure 9/22-9/28/22)
• Godley Park District
• New Lenox Township
• Reed-Custer High School in Braidwood
• Troy Township Highway Department in Shorewood

  

Drop-Off Instructions

• Bag shredded paper in a paper bag, staple closed.
• Bring all residentially or business generated recyclable materials to the drop-off site during operational hours.
• Remove materials from your vehicle.
• Empty plastic bags (excluding bags of shredded paper) of recyclables into the dumpster.
• Close lids to prevent blowing of materials or litter issues. 
• DO NOT TAKE any items that have already been dropped off. Once items have been placed in the box they are part of the Recycling Program.

What happens to the items recycled?

All the materials placed in the bins will go to a recycling processing facility where they will be sorted by type.
 
Aluminum cans will be zapped into one pile, steel will be magnetically lifted to another and plastics will be hand sorted. The paper will be similarly sorted by types. Then the materials are made into large bales (like hay bales-but bigger!), loaded into semi-trucks and taken to manufacturers.
 
At the manufacturer, paper will be dropped into vats of water. It will be pressed and rolled out into new paper products. Magazines may become copy paper, office paper may transform into newspaper and newspaper may be part of your next tissue.
 
Soda pop cans usually become soda pop cans again, often in less than 6 weeks! A soup can may become a steel beam or a file cabinet. Soda pop bottles usually become carpeting while milk jugs and laundry bottles may become maintenance-free decking.
 
Recycling one ton of paper saves 6,953 gal­lons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space, 4,077 Kilowatt hours of en­ergy and 17 trees. Recycling just one aluminum can or glass bottle saves enough en­ergy to power your computer for 3 hours. 
 
The point is that all the items collected have markets; they will become new items and in the process create jobs, save landfill space and reduce natural resource consumption.
 
Recycling at home, at school, at work and at play just makes sense! 

Traditional Recycling Drop-Off Locations:

Please view our Green Guide Database for more Traditional Recycling locations!

Multi-family/Apartment Recycling - Information on starting a program

Many people who rely on Recycling Drop-Off locations live in multi-family buildings such as condominums or apartment buildings that are not included in municipal contracted residential collection services.  People in these situations often require special assistance in setting up their program and educating maintenance staff and neighbors.  The City of Chicago and New York each prepared brief presentations for the US EPA on how to start recycling in these situations.

Former Partner, Washington Township in Beecher, closed in June 2021 due to abuse by participants.

Last Updated: 10/3/2023