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TextFAQs: Business Recycling
- All nonresidential properties (businesses, schools, hospitals, etc.) must recycle mixed paper and cardboard.
- Owners or property managers must provide annual notification to tenants about their recycling system.
- Nonresidential properties must have a recycling plan.
- Certain nonresidential properties must recycle materials in addition to their principal recyclable material.
- An annual recycling report is required from certain properties or generators.
- Cardboard recycling is required at construction and demolition sites.
For more information, see nonresidential recycling and trash as well as section 4 of the Recycling Program Requirements Guide. Also, be sure to check out our information for employees, business tenants and property owners and managers.
A principal recyclable material is the one that occurs in the largest quantity (by weight) in a property's waste stream. It typically varies by business type. For example, in an office building, the principal recyclable is usually mixed paper. For retail stores, warehouses or food service operations, it tends to be corrugated cardboard and/or mixed paper; for auto repair and maintenance, it may be scrap metal or used oil; and for landscapers, it is usually leaves, brush and other yard waste. The principal recyclable is any material from the following list: cardboard and mixed paper; ferrous scrap metal; nonferrous scrap metal; used motor oil; container glass; aluminum or tin cans; cloth; automobile bodies; plastic; clean wood; or brush, leaves, grass, and other arboreal materials, i.e., yard waste.
If you are unsure of the correct principal recyclable material for your building or complex, you should analyze the waste stream. This can be as simple as taking a visual survey of your trash, or can be as involved as sorting, weighing and measuring the volume of all the materials in your waste stream.
It is the responsibility of the property owner or manager of the shopping center to determine the principal recyclable material. If you own a business space that is part of a conjoined building, you are responsible for establishing a recycling procedure for your own business -- including the identification and recycling of a principal material in addition to mixed paper and cardboard (if applicable). If you lease a business space that is part of a shopping center, your property owner is responsible for identifying the principal recyclable for the entire property and for implementing the necessary procedure for collecting mixed paper, cardboard, and the additional principal recyclable material (if applicable).
You calculate each principal recyclable separately unless the businesses are located alongside one another such as in a shopping center.
Home-based businesses must follow residential requirements.
If your office is ready to move beyond paper to recycling other materials, you can apply the concepts in "How to Start an Office Recycling Program." In addition, Fairfax County can provide you additional technical assistance and information about setting up an internal system, arranging for collection, etc. Just ask the Recycle Guy.
Visit the following pages to learn more:
- Batteries
- Business hazardous waste (fluorescent lamps, paint, some chemicals, and more)
- Computers
Please contact the Solid Waste Management Program at 703-324-5230, TTY 711.
See also:
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