The Solid Waste Division is celebrating 30 years of recycling! Orange County residents have recycled more than 800,000 tons of materials
since the program started in 1990. That’s the weight of 123,000
African bush elephants!

When we recycle right, we can save energy, resources, and landfill space for future use!

Saturday, November 14, is officially Orange County Recycles Day, but we’re extending the celebration and going virtual for 2020.

Follow Orange County on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates!

The Solid Waste Division is excited to announce new Think 5 coloring and activity books! These books are a fun way to learn how to recycle right. Pick yours up at an Orange County Library System location near you!

Recycling reduces landfill space and saves natural resources. Manufacturing new items from recycled materials requires less energy than using raw materials. Putting the wrong items in your blue lid recycling cart may contaminate the load and cause the recyclables to end up in the landfill.

Take the Think 5 Pledge and help Orange County recycle right in celebration of Orange County Recycles Day!

I pledge to recycle these clean and dry items in my blue lid
recycling cart:

1. Plastic bottles, jugs, and tubs #1 – #5
2. Metal cans
3. Glass bottles and jars
4. Cardboard
5. Paper

Ever wonder what exactly happens to your garbage when you put it at the curb or dispose of it at a restaurant? Join us for a video tour of the Orange County Landfill located in east Orange County.

Recycling is using items that would be thrown into the trash to make new materials. For example, plastic bottles can be recycled into new plastic bottles or even carpet! By encouraging good recycling habits, we can save landfill space, energy, and natural resources like water and trees.

The Solid Waste Division invited Orange County students, grades 4 – 7, to write a poem to promote recycling right. Congratulations to the 2020 Recycle “Write” Poetry Contest winners below!

Recycling Poem

Recycling is important to me
It keeps animals safe and living happily
And now that we have a shortage of paper
Let’s recycle and keep trees safer

When you recycle paper, see what it can make
Cardboard or a whole new piece, covering for your pen mistake
Moving along, you have a glass jar from your favorite jam
Don’t float it down the river till it reaches a dam

You can recycle plastic containers and bottles
When you recycle, you are a real role model
Next, your order from “Amazon” arrives
And now you have a cardboard box waiting outside
Adding more, you’ve got aluminum cans for soup and beans
Recycle them! I’ll help you understand what this means

If recyclable items are what you’ve hoarded
Recycle them and they’ll go to the material recovery factory to get sorted
Then they go to the processing factory to get melted
I really like recycling, I just can’t help it
‘Cause it gets molded into something new at the manufactured plant
So “Recycle!” is what I chant

There are a lot of benefits to recycling,
such as not a lot of garbage and it saves trees
It recycles plastic that could’ve hurt animals
and sea turtles are important to me
So, remember this, recycling rocks!
Always recycle your papers, plastics, cans and cardboard boxes
And all the other recyclable items you get from different brands
And now you’ve got recycling hands!

The Pet Playhouse

Placed outside: a cardboard dog food box, an empty plastic bottle, a yogurt cup, and a large cardboard box.

Little creature waits, her beady eyes watching some bedding pour into the big box.

A cut is made, and then another, so tape comes in, and finally the guinea pig car is finished!

Yogurt cup is washed, and cut, and a new reused food bowl has appeared.

House would not be complete without half of a plastic bottle for hay, and the other half? A shady roof in an area for the animal to relax.

Our family’s trash, the guinea pig’s treasure. Good thing we reused it!

Under the bottle roof the guinea pig goes to take a nap in her new playhouse.

See what happens when we reuse things?

Everyone is happy now.

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Have you ever wondered why the earth is dying?

Well we can fix that just by trying

If you listen to me we have a chance to save the world by just recycling things like cans

It all starts when you put the can in the bin

Then the recycling truck comes around to pick up the piece of tin

Then it goes to the factory to get the trash satisfactorily sorted

After all that the can gets burned to be used for other things not for the world to get hurt

Recycle Acrostic Poem

Recycling is important because it reduces waste, and it is fun.

Educate others about the ways to recycle and it’ll be done.

Cardboard, paper, glass jars, and tin cans can all go in.

You are responsible for putting it in the bin.

Can you do it? Can you recycle it?

Let's all put effort and time into recycling for a bit.

Everyone can help recycle and help the Earth.

Solid Waste Division
5901 Young Pine Road
Orlando, FL 32829

Email: Solid.Waste@ocfl.net
Solid Waste Hotline: 407-836-6601

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