Waste Hauling in Charlestown Township is handled by private contract. If you live in a larger community that has a Homeowners’ Association, in some cases your HOA secures the contract for waste hauling & recycling services for your entire development.

In Charlestown Township, trash, recycling and yard waste pick-up is provided by the private haulers listed below. For more information, contact the haulers directly.

Haulers in Charlestown are required to recycle in accordance with Ordinance #153-2009 and #220-2022. Haulers listed in Black are registered for 2024.

1. Newspaper – including inserts, may be placed in a paper grocery bag, rigid container, or bundle with string into a stack.
2. Residential Mixed Paper – place this material in a paper grocery bag, including: junk mail, magazines, envelopes, catalogues, phone books, cereal boxes, notepaper, etc. It is OKAY to mix with newspaper.
3. Corrugated Cardboard – flatten and separate from other paper materials. Cardboard may be bundled with string.

1. Glass–all colors. Rinse, remove lids and rings. Labels are OK.
2. Aluminum – rinse
3. Bi-metal steel cans – rinse
4. Plastics - #1 through #7. This number is found in a triangle on the bottom of the container.

Call your private hauler for additional information on how to prepare your recyclables for curbside pick up.

Batteries are either primary (one and done), or they are rechargeable. Both types can be recycled, but they do NOT go in your recycling bin OR your trash bin.

The Township EAC now provides an alkaline battery (AA, AAA, AAAA, etc.) collection service.

The Lanchester Landfill Recycling Facility will accept books that have an ISBN barcode label. This includes hardcover, softcover, and textbooks.

1. Loose books only
2. Must have readable ISBN barcode
3. No magazines, encyclopedias, or water damaged books

Taken from PAPER OR PLASTIC, THOSE PESKY PLASTIC BAGS by Nancy Fromnick, Chester County Recycling Coordinator.

What is the better choice a paper or plastic bag? A reusable bag of course is the best choice. However, other bags also have their place.

A few years ago, a couple of communities in California banned plastic shopping bags only to find out that the sale of plastic garbage bags and wastebaskets liners went up. They discovered that many people use the free plastic bags they get at the store for kitchen and bathroom trash collection as well as diaper and pet waste cleanup. The free bags were replaced with bought bags. Those bans were lifted at the time.

Chester County grocery stores have collection containers at their entrances to collect and recycle plastic bags. Some bags might rip or have a hole in the bottom, making them unusable for home trash collection. Back to the grocery store entrance container is the place for them. But there are many other items to recycle in those containers you might not be aware of. You can also put in plastic newspaper sleeves, dry cleaning bags, bread bags, product wrap (used on paper towels, diapers, bathroom tissue, water bottles), food storage bags, produce bags, bubble wrap, LDPE/HDPE films and any film packaging or bag that has the How2Recycle Label shown.

Please recycle only CLEAN and DRY bags and film and remove receipts or any other items. Never put plastic bags in your curbside recycling bin. A plastic bag at a recycling facility can jam expensive sorting equipment.

Clean plastic bags mixed with sawdust will become plastic lumber – a deck, a dock, a fence, bench or even an attractive outdoor recycling container.

Please, please throw it out! That may not be the message you want to hear near Earth Day, but the truth is “too zealous recyclers have contaminated the recyclables with trash.” They are ruining the ability to market the material nationwide.

A complete list of items from paper to plastics that can be recycled is available here.

Our neighbors at the Borough of Phoenixville have graciously extended access to their yard waste drop off site to Charlestown residents.

For a fee of $5.00 per car or $10.00 per truck, Charlestown residents may drop off yard waste including the following: brush, flower and flower cuttings, garden trimmings, grass clippings, houseplants, leaves, pruning, shrubbery, tree trimmings, tree twigs and branches, weeds, untreated wood chips and yard debris. They accept trees up to 24” in caliper.

The site is located at 18 South 2nd Avenue, Phoenixville, PA 19460

The site is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. year round and on Saturdays from March 1 - November 30 from 7:00 a.m. – 3 p.m.

In addition to the drop-off service, Phoenixville Borough offers yard waste compost, leaf compost and hard wood mulch to participants for a small purchase price.

Charlestown Township is greatly appreciative of this service, and we hope our residents will find it useful.

www.phoenixville.org/government/88

Charlestown Township is mandated by Pennsylvania Act 101 to recycle. Commercial and Institutional establishments in Charlestown must separate and store the following materials for recycling collection.

Cans:

Cardboard:

Glass:

Paper:

Plastics:

Leaves: