The SWA’s dedication to conserving our natural resources and minimizing the amount of waste going into the landfill is well known. As a leader in the recycling industry, the SWA’s award winning recycling program has been recognized for excellence by organizations such as the Solid Waste Association of North America and Recycle Florida Today. Since the inception of our recycling program the SWA has recycled more than two million tons of residential and commercial material that otherwise would have been landfilled. Last year alone the SWA sold 78,915 tons, or 157,830,000 pounds, of recyclables.

In Palm Beach County recycling is an entirely voluntary program, and the SWA owes a great debt of gratitude to the homeowners and businesses that have helped us achieve our great success. With our blue and yellow recycling bin system residents can recycle aluminum, glass, plastics, cardboard, magazines, paper bags and newspaper right at the curb. The SWA makes recycling easy!

Our Commercial Recycling Program gives businesses the opportunity to recycle as well, either at their place of business or at one of the more than 150 Public Drop-off Locations located conveniently throughout the county. These free drop-off locations provide a convenient place where businesses can take their recyclable items like office paper, magazines, cardboard, newspapers and catalogs. Also, through the SWA’s Commercial Materials Processing Agreement program, eligible businesses are paid for their office paper.

The SWA will even assist your business with getting your recycling program started. Our team of experts can visit your business and through a Waste Audit determine what can be recycled at your place of business. We perform nearly 1,200 Waste Audits per year. Contact us to schedule a Waste Audit today.

Thanks to you and the hard work of our dedicated staff, the SWA has successfully achieved our 50% waste reduction goal every year since it was established in 1998. In addition to recyclables, the SWA recovers nearly 250,000 tons of clean vegetation per year. This material is mulched and either composted, processed into boiler fuel, or returned to the land as a soil amendment.

Even with all of our successes, the SWA continuously strives to improve.  The SWA constructed a new Recovered Materials Processing Facility (RMPF) which opened in October 2009.  This $40 million, 138,000 square foot facility, is the largest RMPF in the state and has the ability to manage the recycling stream for Palm Beach County far into the future.  The completion of this facility allowed the SWA to expand the material accepted in the recycling program to include all cardboard such as dry food boxes, beverage cartons and tissue boxes, just to name a few.  The expansion of materials also included junk mail and steel cans, further reducing our reliance on the landfill.

For more information on the SWA’s Recycling Programs, please click here.

Did You Know?

• Recycling a stack of newspaper 3 ½ feet tall saves one tree from being cut down.

• Every Sunday it takes 75,000 trees just to print the New York Times newspaper.

• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run your TV for three hours.

• The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle could operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.

• EVERYDAY, the SWA gets 6 million pounds of garbage. This is enough to cover an entire football field nine feet high.

• Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.