St. Petersburg's Recycling Guide Featuring Mr. Sparkle and the Amazing Recyclables!

Throwing Out Is Out!

PLEASE RECYCLE!

Florida generates over 24 million tons of solid waste per year. If you’re the typical Florida resident, you throw away nine pounds of trash a day.
Now, you can recycle some of that trash, and help mother earth.

To help you recycle, St. Petersburg is pleased to provide you with this guide. Mr. Sparkle and the Amazing Recyclables will tell you what to recycle, how to recycle it, and what else you can do to help the world.

NEWSPAPERS
Tie newspapers up, pile them in stacks, store them in paper bags or cardboard boxes. When you arrive at the recycling center, drop your newspapers in the bin, but save your bags or boxes for the next load. No phone books, magazines, or plastic bags, please.

GOOD NEWS FOR TREES
Recycling one Sunday edition of the New York Times would save 75,000 trees! Every ton of paper recycled saves 17 trees from being cut down. Your newspaper today can be a newspaper tomorrow - or new building products and packaging materials.

ALUMINUM CANS
Soda, beer and other beverage cans. If it’s aluminum, a magnet won’t stick to it. So, if it flunks the stick test, recycle! For storage, rinse and flatten.

Throwing Money in the Can
The United States throws away one million tons of aluminum annually - worth $400 million!

GLASS BOTTLES
Food and beverage containers only. Rinse and sort by color - green, clear and brown. Remove all metal rings and caps. No need to remove the labels. Please, no bulbs, window glass, cooking ware or medicine bottles.

100% Return on Glass
Glass is 100 percent recyclable. Every pound of glass bottles and jars brought to your RecyclaMat can make a pound of new glass containers.

PLASTIC BOTTLES
The plastic jugs for milk, soda, water are recyclable. Please, no oil containers or other plastic products.

Is That a Milk Jug You’re Wearing?
Your recycled plastic containers find a second life as a ski jackets, stuffing for pillows, Sleeping bags and car seats. In St. Petersburg, the durable, plastic park bench you may be sitting on is made from recycled plastic products.

YARD CLIPPINGS
Your grass clippings, brush and tree trimmings make up 30 percent of the city’s waste stream. St. Petersburg’s Recyclamats/Brush sites turn these into free mulch, used in Tampa Bay area parks and along roadways.

Benefits by the Yard
While you’re at the brush site, pick up some free mulch. When you use the city’s free mulch in your yard, benefits spring to life! Mulch and compost will help your soil to retain moisture, control weeds, reduce erosion and modify soil temperatures.

CARDBOARD
Take your cardboard boxes to the brush site for recycling. Please breakdown the boxes before placing in container to save space. No cereal boxes, waxed or plastic coated boxes, or food stained cardboard.

Corrugated Cardboard Boxes are there when you need them.
We use them when we’re moving or just to store a bunch of old books. Corrugated cardboard is really valuable, the paper fibers are long and strong and can be recycled many times. By recycling cardboard, we save about 1/4 of the energy used to manufacture it.