Recycling Hard-to-Recycle Items

While there are many things accepted through , you might be left wondering where to recycle less common items. Luckily, Greater Boston has plenty of options and locations for dropping off those hard-to-recycle items.

The Rumford Ave. recycling center takes a lot of items not recyclable through curbside recycling.  Some items they accept are aerosol cans, bicycles, auto parts, car batteries, cell phones and chargers, lightbulbs, empty propane tanks, , and more.

Styrofoam peanuts are also accepted at the at 321 Walnut Street.

Both in Newton take wine corks for recycling. They work with Cork Harvest, a nonprofit organization that upcycles cork while developing carbon neutral processes for making and shipping the upcycled cork.

For plastic bags, most Star Markets and Shaws Supermarkets around Greater Boston have stations to recycle plastic bags.  

, a funky vintage store, in Nonantum accepts recyclables, too.  They take cell phones, batteries, and printer cartridges and dispose of them the right way. You can also drop off old blankets and towels there, and they will donate them to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem. 

If you’re renovating your home and you find yourself having a tough time disposing of household building materials, there are a few options for recycling those. You’ll have to venture out of Newton and either go to the Building Materials Resource Center (100 Terrace St, Boston) Dedham Transfer Station (5 Incinerator Road, Dedham), or Habitat for Humanity Restore (28 River Street, Braintree). Those three locations take items such as linoleum, carpet, and tiles.

For some items, you may think they don’t have anymore life in them but someone out there still might be interested in them. If you want to make a few bucks, you can try to sell it on craigslist. If you just want to get it off your hands, try posting it on . There might be someone who wants to fix your old television for their basement, someone who needs discarded tiles, or someone who wants to use old wine corks to make a bulletin board.  

Lastly, many charitable organizations will take certain recyclables. The Rumford Ave. recycling center has drop boxes for Salvation Army, Morgan Memorial, St. Vincent dePaul and the Red Cross. Big Brothers Big Sisters has a donation station at the Stop and Shop parking lot on Pleasant Street in Watertown where you can drop off clothes, toys, small appliances, and more.  

You can also send your phone to Cell Phones for Soldiers or Cell Phones for Life, which donates phones to the elderly, disabled, and battered women. Cans for Charity in Wellesley Hills recycles many different difficult to recycle items, including computers, and the money goes to different charities.  

Instead of throwing stuff in the garbage, look into disposing of it responsibly. Whether you’re donating items to charity or making sure they get recycled, you’re keeping things out of the landfills.