Greensboro residents just got a big thumbs-up from the City of Greensboro recycling people due to residents upping their recycling efforts and knowledge.

According to the city’s latest Recycling Composition Study, Greensboro has recorded its lowest recycling contamination rate ever. The 2025 study shows contamination in the city’s curbside recycling stream has dropped from 36.2 percent in 2021 to only 20.1 percent this year.

That’s a major shift in behavior, and city officials say it’s thanks to everyday residents doing a better job of keeping trash out of their recycling carts.

“This is a win we all share,” said City Waste Reduction Supervisor Tori Carle Emerson this week. “Greensboro residents are stepping up in a big way, learning what belongs in the cart – and just as importantly, what doesn’t.”

The study, conducted by Kessler Consulting, took a close-up look at both residential and commercial recycling.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Contamination dropped across the board, with both red and blue week routes showing much cleaner recycling than in previous years.
  • Corrugated cardboard was the standout performer, making up nearly 48 percent of correctly recycled materials.
  • The top offenders? Bagged recyclables and bagged trash. (The Rhino Times was not aware of this but anything found inside a plastic bag in a recycling cart is automatically tossed in the landfill – not recycled.)
  • Glass continues to show up in curbside carts even though it’s only accepted at one of the city’s 20-plus special drop-off sites.

To help residents keep things simple, the city is once again promoting its “Core 4” list of what belongs in your recycling cart:

(1) Paper and cardboard

(2) Plastic bottles, tubs, and jugs

(3) Metal food and drink cans

(4) Everything goes in loose – it’s never supposed to be bagged.

City staff said this week that they’re not done yet. The Solid Waste and Recycling Department plans to roll out new educational tools, guides and updated signage later this year to keep the positive momentum going.

At the same time the city is celebrating the progress, it’s also doubling down on enforcement.  Greensboro recently installed AI-powered cameras and GPS tracking equipment on a handful of recycling trucks to identify rule-breakers. The system photographs the contents of each recycling bin as it’s being emptied and tags the location, allowing the city to flag violations in real time.  The city sends out notices to the offenders.

While city staff frame the effort as a way to cut contamination and save taxpayer dollars, some privacy advocates have raised concerns about the surveillance-style approach.

Many Greensboro residents are still disappointed that you can’t put glass in the recycling can, however, that’s becoming more and more common nationwide due to the high cost of recycling glass that way.  Currently less than half of the towns and cities in the US have access to any type of glass recycling.

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