Pittsburgh’s Curbside Recycling is going
BAG FREE! By Alicia Carberry and Omoye Aikhuele
City of Pittsburgh – Department of Public Works, Bureau of Environmental Services, Recycling Division
HELLO FROM THE CITY’S BUREAU OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES – RECYCLING DIVISION! Here in the Recycling Division, we are shifting away
Environmental Services will receive a 32-gallon blue
from a bag-based curbside residential recycling
recycling bin by the end of 2022—Squirrel Hill North
program. While the blue bag has long been a part of
and South received bins in the summer/fall of 2021.
Pittsburgh’s recycling program, plastic bags degrade recyclables and get caught in the sorting equipment at
Going along with this shift away from blue bags at the
the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hazelwood.
curb, our City Council is considering a ban on plastic bags at the point of sale. We want to underline the
In order to guide this shift away from using blue bags at
mantra “Reduce, reuse, recycle” and endorse the
the curb, we are distributing blue recycling bins city-
reduction of single-use plastic bags. We continue
wide. Every residence serviced by the Bureau of
to strive to find more ways the City can encourage reuse and recycling to keep as much as possible out of our landfills. Many materials can journey towards a “next life,” even if not accepted for curbside recycling collection. The Recycling Division receives many questions about composting options. Although curbside collection of food waste is not part of our current operations, we do accept yard debris at the curb in the spring and fall. Residents may also drop off yard debris year-round at our Streets Divisions in Homewood, Hazelwood, or Elliott. A handful of local businesses offer both business and residential compost services, and we maintain a directory on our website of companies and resources.
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