Our partner organizations provide solid waste and recycling services to county residents. The County of Albemarle does not directly provide solid waste and recycling services. Please read on for information about trash collection, recycling, and composting services. 

Quick reference for recycling and reusing resources in the county.

Trash Collection

The County relies on private service providers for curbside trash and recycling collection. Residents can subscribe for collection services or self haul to the Ivy Material Utilization Center (MUC). Please note it is illegal to burn trash in Albemarle County.

The County does not have a landfill so haulers send trash to a transfer station like Ivy MUC or another transfer station where trash is consolidated into larger trucks and then hauled to the Shoosmith Landfill in Chesterfield County or another Virginia landfill.

For more information about what happens to your trash you can ask your hauler.

Recycling

There are several ways to recycle in Albemarle County. The County runs two drop-off recycling centers. Please scroll through the links to see the list of what is collected at McIntire Recycling Center and Ivy MUC.

You can also subscribe to curbside recycling from haulers that offer the service. Some haulers use the County Waste Material Recovery Facility (MRF) co-located at the Shoosmith Landfill to sort their recyclables. The County does not oversee these services so encourages residents to ask their haulers about what recyclables they collect and what happens to them.

Solid Waste and Recycling in Albemarle County 

The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority (RSWA) provides recycling, solid waste, and household hazardous waste disposal services at McIntire Recycling Center, Ivy Material Utilization Center (MUC), and the Paper Sort Facility on Meade Avenue. McIntire Recycling Center also has a special bin to collect oyster shells as part of the Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling and Restoration Program; recycling FAQs can be found here. RSWA is funded jointly by the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle and provide services according to the City and County budget allocations. 

Needles, syringes, lancets and unused/expired drugs are collected and disposed of, not recycled. Used sharps can be collected in a specialized sharps container or a heavy duty plastic bottle such as a detergent bottle and dropped off on Prescription Drug Take-Back Days. The UVA Hospital has a drop-off box for unused/expired drugs in the lobby of the Education Resource Center at 1240 Lee Street, available 24/7; Sentara Martha Jefferson has a drop-off box at their outpatient pharmacy, available Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. 

Prescription Drug Take-Back Days are held by the Albemarle County Police Department in the fall and spring. Look for announcements from the County and in local media for these events. Your pharmacy or medical care provider may also be able to help you with safe disposal of sharps and unused/expired drugs.

Composting

Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has a food waste composting program at McIntire Recycling Center and Ivy MUC. Compostable food waste from households is accepted in compostable bags; complimentary bags are offered to users of this program at the McIntire or Ivy MUC composting kiosks.

For more information, please visit RSWA Composting 101.

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Acrobat Reader Windows Media Player Word Viewer Excel Viewer PowerPoint Viewer