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Metals Picture By dtsortanidis on Flickr original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/46345924@N06/5924955729/

Blue Bin Recycling

Place most metal items into your commingled recycling container if you have recycling service at your home, business, apartment or school. You can also recycle larger pieces of metal at locations listed on this page.

Metals

Metals are elements that start out as rocks (called ores). It takes lots of energy to mine them, grind them, and heat them up (smelting) to get just the part we want. For example, it takes eight tons of the ore bauxite to make one ton of aluminum. While this process is very energy intensive, the good news is...

Almost All Metals are Recyclable!

If you have a hard object made out of metal -- a can, toy, tool, or car part -- you don’t have to worry about what type of metal it is. Just put it in your blue bin. Click the links below for more information about the different metal types.

What about cans?

Check out our Metal Cans page for info on where you can recycle your cans, both aluminum and steel. We also have a CRV page that tells all about the Bottle Bill and covered products. The only can that is not recyclable at home is a partially full aerosol can which is classified as hazardous waste.

Which metals aren't recyclable?

Some metals can't be put in your recycling container, but you probably already know about most of them. Examples include any radioactive metal (uranium, plutonium...but how did you get them anyway?) and mercury or objects containing mercury. Also off limits are lead-containing products like cathode ray tubes (found in TVs and computer monitors).

While precious metals are recyclable, chances are you probably want to keep the value of your silver, gold, or platinum for yourself. Check out our Jewelry page for more information.

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