Recycling on 30A: Everything You Need to Know to Start Recycling Today

Here at 30A, we’re all about decreasing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills, whether that’s making recycled apparel or recycling the plastic, cans, and paper that we use.

While you won’t see recycling bins around 30A, Walton County offers a recycling program that includes 15 drop-off sites for recyclables.

Here’s what you need to know:

Photos by Ragan Smith

Walton County manages several recycling trailers in North, Central, and South Walton County where you can drop off recycling. They recycle materials like #1 and #2 plastics (which can include water bottles, milk jugs, and detergent bottles), paper (newspapers, magazines, telephone books), corrugated cardboard, used oil, and tires (for a small fee). They do not accept plastic bags, other plastic recyclables, or glass. As far as metal, electronics (computers, microwaves, radios, televisions), and appliances (stoves, refrigerators, freezers) are concerned, residents are advised not to drop these types of items off at the recycle trailer locations. Instead, you can either bring them to the landfill for recycling or if you are located in the south end of the county around the beaches you can drop off these items at the Blue Mountain Pit located at 970 County Hwy 83S. The county has a couple of open-top roll-off containers staged at that location for these heavier items.

For more information on recyclable materials and how to prepare them before dropping them off in a recycling bin, check out this article by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents can bring these items to the Landfill for recycling during normal business hours, which are 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday. There are three different types of recycling trailers at each site: cardboard-only trailers (for clean cardboard that has been broken down and flattened out), regular recycling trailers (for plastic bottles, aluminum drink cans, and paper), and recycling trailers with cardboard.

Walton County stresses the importance of not placing household garbage in the recycling trailers, as this will contaminate the contents of the trailer and render everything in it non-recyclable.

They also ask that people not place materials on the ground around the trailers, since this will need to be cleaned up by the driver and put them behind schedule in exchanging full trailers with empty ones.