Orange County Recycling Stars Program

The Orange County Solid Waste Department is launching a new Recycling Stars Program. The program goal is to improve the overall quality and quantity of recyclables collected from households around the County. Residents recycling properly will be rewarded with star stickers. Residents that need some additional information on recycling properly will receive ‘oops’ tags, personalized contamination letters, and other educational materials. Any recycling cart with contamination will be marked with an oops tag and will not be collected during that collection period.

The Recycling Stars Program was awarded the Public Recycling Champion Award by the Southeast Recycling Development Council in October 2023. Read more here.

Star sticker pictured below:

star snip

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Interested in being an Orange County recycling star? 

First, make sure you recycle right! Visit the 'What Goes In My Blue Recycle Cart? page for more information. Second, download the free Orange County NC Recycles app in the Apple or Google Play Stores and learn how to dispose of different items using the A-Z Waste & Recycle Guide.

The Stars program will help create awareness of the need to recycle right and ultimately reduce the contamination rate in the County’s single-family curbside recycling. Based on the 2019 recycling composition study, the overall contamination in the recycling stream was about 15%. 

New Recycling Cart Stickers

As a part of the IMG_3103recycling stars program, over the next several months Solid Waste employees will be applying updated stickers with current 'Recycle Right' information on residents' recycling carts.

IMPORTANT: Until you have received a new cart sticker, please leave your cart out until the afternoon to allow staff to update the cart stickers.

Letters

  1. Initial Stars Program Letter (English and Spanish)

Solid Waste Department Honored for Recycling Stars Program

The Southeast Recycling Development Council on Oct. 19 awarded Orange County Solid Waste the Public Recycling Champion Award for its Recycling Stars initiative. The Recycling Stars program is an individual education program designed to improve the quality of comingled recycling and reduce contamination in residential curbside recycling carts.


The program educates residents on the materials acceptable in curbside carts and which materials should be otherwise disposed through an intensive cart inspection program. Residents recycling correctly receive recycling star stickers. To date, the program has resulted in improvement in 59 percent of inspected curbside recycling carts.


The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, which had provided a $15,000 grant to support starting the Stars program, nominated Orange County for the award. In support of the nomination, the county made a presentation about the program at the Resource Recycling Conference in August.

“This award recognizes the dedication and hard work Orange County staff places on engaging and educating the community on how to recycle right,” said Robert Williams, Solid Waste and Fleet Director. “Being nominated and winning this prestigious award is a testament of the emphasis Orange County staff places on improving the quality of recyclable material being processed. Engaging with members of the community is an important start towards a zero waste community.”