Ottawa Recycling Center drive

Jul 15, 2023

Four weeks ago, Ottawa’s Recycling Center moved to its new drive-thru location in the building out behind the Putnam County Agricultural Services Complex. Interested persons can get to the recycling drive-thru behind 1205 East Second Street by using the drive closest to the tracks across from Car-E-It’s back parking lot, staying to the right and driving to the last building, and then pulling into that building’s last big overhead door where drivers are to wait to be assisted by an attendant.

Joe Hohlbein, Supervisor at the Ottawa Recycling Center, expressed satisfaction with their new home. Mr. Holhlbein pointed out that receiving recycling materials through the building’s drive-thru enabled the center’s employees to have more control over what they take, which allows them to more easily reject household garbage that cannot be recycled. Additionally, he explained that their new location featured plenty of room to take in recyclable materials and kept all the employees within one building so they could assist each other at a moment’s notice.

“Come on out and check her out,” invited Joe Hohlbein to county residents.

The hours of the Ottawa Recycling Center are Monday-Friday 9 am -5 pm, Closed on Holidays and County Level 3 snow emergencies, 1st & 3rd Saturdays of the month 8-11 am.

The Ottawa Recycling Center accepts the following items:

1. PAPER BIN-Magazines, office paper, catalogs, copy paper, envelopes, phone books, junk mail, and newspapers. Please take out of plastic bags.

2. CARDBOARD BIN-Flattened/broken down corrugated sheets and boxes, flattened chipboard (cake, cereal, cracker boxes), file folders, poster board, paper egg cartons, and pizza boxes. Please cut out any oil contamination in pizza boxes. Please cut down large boxes and remove any plastic or styrofoam.

3. PLASTIC BIN-Plastics with the number 1 or 2 in the recycling triangle. Examples milk jugs, two-liter bottles, water bottles, etc. TIP: Not all plastic container numbers match their lids. No black plastic at all. At this time we have started separating the 1s and 2s.

4. METAL BIN-All cans, aluminum, tin, lids, and aluminum foil that does not have food on or in any of these items. We now take scrap metal also. No aerosol cans.

5. GLASS BIN–Clean food and beverage containers only. -Any Color Glass- Please remove plastic & metal lids and put them in the correct bins.

The center does not accept the following items:

*No Styrofoam

*No plastic bags

*No Black Plastic

*No paper containers with wax or plastic coatings are not recyclable such as pet food bags, frozen food packages, salt bags, and milk/juice containers.

*Containers must be rinsed of food and other contaminants

*At this time we ask there be no pane glass or plexi-glass, paint or paint cans, aerosol cans, tires, televisions, batteries, light bulbs, construction materials, or any type of household garbage/hazardous waste be put into the recycling bins. Please see our ‘Resources’ section on our website, putnamcountyrecycles.com, for other alternatives for the disposal of these items.

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