What to Do With Metal & Appliances

Some Metal is Recyclable

Some metal generated from the home or office may be recyclable.  The following items are usually accepted in curbside or drop-off recycling programs:

If you subscribe privately to waste collection services, call your waste hauler to see if recycling is a service offered.  If you live in a municipality that has contracted for a single hauler to provide waste collection services, call your municipal office to see if curbside recycling is offered.  At work, check with your employer to see if recycling is conducted in your workplace.

For drop-off collection, check with your municipal office to see if drop-off recycling is provided in your community, or bring your recyclables to the Authority’s Public Recycle Drop-off Center located across from the Resource Recovery Center on Blackbridge Road, Manchester Township, York, PA.  There is no fee to deliver recyclables to the drop-off center.   Click here for directions.  To view a list of recyclables accepted, click here.

Small metal items (wire hangers, old garden tools, utensils, etc.) originating from households can usually be handled at the York County  Resource Recovery Center (RRC) and so can be placed curbside for regular garbage pick-up.

Items containing refrigerants (such as Freon) can be accepted at the York County Resource Recovery Center located at 2651 Blackbridge Road.  Click here for directions to the facility.  These include: refrigerators; freezers; air conditioners; dehumidifiers; and any other appliances containing refrigerants.  State regulations require that metal items containing refrigerants (such as refrigerators and air conditioners) must be delivered to a facility that can recover the refrigerant from the appliance.  The Authority has a contract with a company to recover refrigerants from appliances.  Click here for Resource Recovery Center hours of operation and fees. 

The following list identifies the types of metal that cannot be processed at the RRC and therefore should NOT be placed out with your regular garbage:

Stoves; office equipment; water heaters; metal banding if longer than 2 feet; metal furniture; and other types of primarily large metal items.

Large amounts of metal items do not burn and have the potential to damage equipment at the York County Resource Recovery Center.  

Disposal Alternative— Donate usable items to a community group or take it to a facility (such as a scrap metal dealer) permitted to accept metal items.

Consider contacting a salvage company directly--some may pay you market value for your metal.  Consult your telephone directory’s yellow pages for a list of scrap metal or recycling centers in York County.

York County residents can bring their metal items to the Resource Recovery Center and dispose of them in a separate bin which is then sent to a salvage yard to be recycled.  Click here to read about disposal costs and hours.