What Can We Take?
A Short Guide to The ReCollective’s
Accepted Materials
Our environment suffers when household stuff is thrown away without a second chance. Our typical recycling programs can only take so much. The ReCollective fills this gap and collects all of the below materials and more directly from your doorstep in our easy-to-use collection system!
Why did The ReCollective choose all these materials? Earlier this year we surveyed over 100 Triangle residents on which materials they most wanted help recycling or repurposing. We chose the materials and frequency of pickup based on this feedback.
We’ll be going more in depth into the materials we can take and why, the downstream solutions we have for those materials, and the community partners who help make it happen in the coming weeks. Check out our blog or follow us on instagram to stay up to date!
Can’t wait? You can learn more about all materials we accept and how these materials are recycled and repurposed on at theReCollective.co
Our styrofoam is collected in a special low-density plastic bag to accommodate polystyrene’s large volume and low weight. When we pick up from your door, we are looking for rigid block styrofoam (#6 type recycling), but not any type of food or liquid containing styrofoam.
The plastic film we accept is stretchy like single-use plastic grocery bags. We can accept clean and dry plastic film free of any food residue! The best test is that it stretches rather than immediately ripping or tearing.
Your batteries and lightbulbs will be collected on a rotating schedule in our smallest collection kit bag. We can take many different types of batteries, including lithium-ion and rechargeable, and most household lightbulbs too (scroll further to learn how to recycle your fluorescent bulbs).
Fast fashion sure has loaded our landfills with perfectly good textiles! If you have clean, gently used clothes, towels, sheets, and purses, we can take them and make sure they live a second life! As long as the textiles are not wet or mildewed we can take them.
The ReCo Pick is our special monthly offering! Maybe after the holidays you have lights that cannot go back in the attic, maybe when school lets out those dried up Crayola markers need to find a new home! We will announce periodically our upcoming ReCo Pick so you can start saving – it may be one or two materials we can recover for you, and it’s guaranteed to find a better solution that your household trashcan!
The ReCollective wants to help with as many hard-to-recycle materials that your home deals with, but not everything piles up on a regular basis. For these materials we’ve offered an Add-On option to our ReCollective members. These add-on materials include: expired or unused prescription drugs, paper to be shredded and recycled, latex paint, and fluorescent tube lightbulbs.