Inside the single-stream recycling center in Utica that sorts, bales, and sells recycling from Oneida and Herkimer Counties.
Quick Answer: Your curbside recycling goes to the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority’s single-stream recycling center, where it's separated into cardboard, paper, glass, steel, aluminum, cartons, and several types of plastic. We press each material into wire-wrapped bales and sell them by the truckload for processing. All of the Authority’s current material buyers are in the United States, and your recycling isn’t shipped overseas.
Rinse the jar, drop it in the bin, roll the bin to the curb. For most people, that’s where recycling ends. But what happens to your recycling after the truck pulls away? The answer starts in the same place: the Authority’s Single Stream Recycling Center in Utica. Since 1991, we have recycled more than a million tons of material!
Keep reading to find out the route your recyclables take through the recycling process. You can also watch the whole trip in our Single Stream Recycling Center tour video.
Where does recycling go after curbside pickup?
The truck full of recyclables arrives at our recycling center and drives onto a scale where it's weighed. Then the driver steers inside the tip floor area to unload its haul. A loader operator pushes the load into a pile.
That single pile represents roughly one day’s worth of incoming material, and sorters work to get through it all before the day is out. From there, the loader feeds everything into a large drum feeder, which spreads the material evenly onto the conveyor belt carrying it up to the sorting area.
How is recycling sorted at a single-stream recycling center?
Single-stream recycling means paper, plastic, metal, and glass all go into one container together. That’s the idea behind the Authority’s RecycleOne, One and Done program, and it’s why the sorting line does so much of the work. Here’s the sequence:
- Presort. Workers pull out plastic bags, shredded paper, non-recyclable items, and anything that could hurt workers or damage machines. Each item drops through a chute to a collection area below.
- Cardboard screen. Rotating discs float cardboard across the top and into its own bin. Everything else falls through.
- Post-sort. Workers catch any cardboard the screen missed, plus garbage or hazardous items that made it this far.
- Glass screen. Paper rides across the top onto its own belt. Glass breaks and drops through with the containers, then a second screen catches the containers and lets the broken glass fall into a bin.
- Magnets. Strong magnets lift out steel and other magnetic metals, like soup cans.
- Optical sorters. Using lights and lasers, they spot PET plastic (think water bottles) and natural HDPE (milk jugs), then blow each off the belt into its own bin.
- Paper sort. Workers pull stray containers and non-recyclable paper off the paper line. What’s left drops into the paper bin.
- AI robots. AI-guided robots spot specific plastics, pick them up with suction, and blow them into separate bins. They can be reprogrammed to target different plastics at any time.
- Carton sort. Workers pick out milk and juice cartons and anything else that slipped past.
- Eddy current. The last belt carries aluminum (soda cans, etc.) along with leftover non-recyclables (called "residue"). An eddy current pushes the aluminum off into its bin. The residue falls into a bin that gets emptied at the transfer station, where all the garbage goes.
How are recyclables baled and sold?
When a collection bin fills, the material goes into a baler that presses it together and wraps it in wire, making large cubes called bales. Once enough bales accumulate to fill a tractor-trailer, material buyers bid to pick them up at our Recycling Center and haul them to their own facility, where they're manufactured into new products.
Where a given load ends up depends on which buyer wins it. Selling into recycling markets is how sorted material leaves the building, and the Authority adds items to its accepted list as markets are secured for them.
Is recycling shipped overseas?
No. All of the Authority’s current material buyers are based in the Northeast. One material (metal, for example) may go to a buyer in Albany, while another, like paper, goes to a paper recycling mill in Buffalo.
Why does it matter what goes in the bin?
The Authority receives no tax funding for this operation. Selling the sorted, baled material is one of the primary ways it funds day-to-day operations. Anything that doesn’t belong has to be pulled off the line by hand, and whatever gets past the sorters ends up as residue headed to the transfer station.
A few habits help every load:
- Keep recyclables loose in your container. Don’t bag them.
- Shredded paper is the one exception. Put it in a clear plastic bag next to your recycling container.
- Keep plastic bags out of the bin. See the plastic film page for other options.
- Not sure about an item? Check the Acceptable Material list or Am I Recyclable.
Want to see it in person?
Schools, businesses, and community groups can also reach out through the Authority’s Request a Speaker page to ask about a recycling center tour or a presentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Where do recyclables go in Oneida and Herkimer County?
A: All curbside recyclables from Oneida and Herkimer County go to the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority’s Recycling Center at 824 Sewage Plant Road in Utica, NY. There they’re sorted, baled, and sold to material buyers.
Q: What is single-stream recycling?
A: Single-stream recycling means recyclable paper, plastic, metal, and glass are mixed together in one container.
Q: Who buys the recyclables?
A: When there are enough bales of a material to fill a tractor-trailer, the Authority holds a bid among its material buyers to pick it up at the Recycling Center.
Q: Can I drop off my own recyclables?
A: Yes. Residents of Oneida and Herkimer Counties can bring recyclables to EcoDrop Utica or EcoDrop Rome. Check locations and hours before you go.