Recycling

Get a Recycling Can
If you would like to order a blue recycle can, fill out our Garbage and Recycle Can Request Form.

Average Monthly Residential Recycle Can Fee: Orem: $4.40; Average: $7.09; American Fork: $7.35; Provo: $7.70; Salem: $7.92; Spanish Fork: $8.00; Santaquin: $8.85; Payson: 10.00

The collection company will come every other week to empty your recycle bin. You can check the 2024 Garbage/Recycling Pickup Schedule or the City Calendar to see when recycling is next scheduled to be picked up. The monthly cost can be found on the Utility Rates page.

How it Works
Recyclable items include paper, plastic, cardboard, tin cans, magazines, etc. all of which can be placed in the same bin. For more information on acceptable and unacceptable recycling items, please see the lists found on the SUVSWD recycling page or the Republic Services recycling page or watch the video below.

For info on locations you may take recycling items to, please visit our Recycling Locations page.

How to Opt-Out
You may opt-out of the recycling program any time after six months by filling out our Garbage and Recycle Can Request Form. 

Spanish Fork's Recycling Efforts
Spanish Fork City belongs to a solid waste special service district along with Springville, Provo, Mapleton, Woodland Hills, and Salem. Together, the cities share the cost of garbage disposal. The price each city pays for each ton of garbage collected hinges on how much trash that city contributes, to the landfill, relative to the other cities.

In the past, other cities in the service district have increased recycling with opt-out recycling programs. These efforts have reduced their city's trash contributions and, thereby, made the cost of trash collection cheaper for their city, because they reduced the relative amount of trash contributed.

Spanish Fork's efforts to recycle have been dwarfed by those of other cities. Our modest recycling efforts have caused the relative tons of garbage Spanish Fork contributes to increase, thus increasing the cost per ton of garbage collected from the city. To bring down the cost of garbage disposal for everyone, we needed to increase our recycling efforts to match or exceed those efforts of other cities within our special district.

In 2009, the City began an opt-in curbside recycling program. This brought the curbside recycling level to about 25% of Spanish Fork households. In the fall of 2014, the City implemented an opt-out recycling program. This effort increased the City's curbside recycling participation to about 60%.

Benefits
Recycling programs lower the long-run costs of trash collection by lowering the city's relative garbage contribution. The cost of providing the recycling service is decreased because the costs are spread over more residents. Recycling is also an environmentally responsible activity. Recycling saves natural resources and energy, reduces the need for landfill space, and lowers the need to use toxic chemicals.