Here at Riderwood there are lots of way to recycle! To view the latest bulletin board poster summarizing the available on-campus options click here!
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Recycle to Other Uses
For useful items that can be reused, consider giving them away:
- Treasure Chest Store – Donations of household goods and jewelry support the Benevolent Care Fund.
- Chatterwood – Send an email describing the item to give away to another resident.
- Riderwood Lions Club – Collects eyeglasses and hearing aids to redistribute, new or used stamps for wounded veteran therapy, and can tabs for Ronald McDonald House.
- Riderwood General Services collects the following (call 301 572-8355 for pickup):
- used clothing to donate to charities,
- used wheelchairs, rollators, and walkers to donate to Wheels for the World.
- Value Village, Planet Aid, ReStore Store, Unique Thrift Store, Interfaith Works – Local organizations collect clothes, linens, household goods, and furniture. Check the websites for locations and details of what they accept.
- PhoenixComputers.info – Repurposes recent model computers, printers, and accessories for non-profit uses.
Riderwood Weekly Collections
General Services Housekeeping collects recyclables twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our recycle materials are taken to the Waste Management Elkridge Recycling Facility, where over a mile of transport belts, and lots of automation, sort and bale the materials into 9 different categories for downstream processing. Here’s a video to take a look inside the facility!
Riderwood Recycle Rooms
Each Recycle Room contains the following containers for your recyclable materials:
- Large blue bins for mixed recycle materials, the same as the Tuesday/Thursday pickups
- A smaller blue bin for plastic bags and packaging
- A scrap metal bin (tools, utensils, pots & pans, small kitchen appliances, lamps, vacuum cleaners)
- A locked gray box or bin or for sensitive documents to be shredded
- A standing cylinder for used batteries (non-lithium)
- Small hanging bins for
- Inkjet cartridges
- Light bulbs
- Sharps (needles, lancets, syringes)
There are a total of 16 Recycle/Cart rooms at Riderwood, four in each neighborhood.
Recycling Guidelines
Each of the Riderwood recycle streams have different criteria for the acceptability of items to be recycled. Read on to understand the criteria for Mixed Recycle, Plastic Bags and Packaging, Scrap Metal, and the Other items with bins in the Recycle Rooms. And for the latest Recycling Guidelines 12-page booklet, click the button below, then print double sided, flip on short side! The booklet includes Guidelines for Electronics and Food Scraps, as well as the same charts that are available below.
Mixed Recycle
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, all materials can be placed together in your blue BIN, though for recyclable paper products, you can use the blue BAG or other containers to keep the paper separate (BUT NOT plastic bags!). The recycle materials from both the pickups and the Recycle Rooms are all compacted into a single-stream by Riderwood’s contractor. Here’s a chart of the Do’s and Don’ts for Riderwood Mixed Recycling. CLICK on the image to view the chart in a new window to print out.
STYROFOAM is not recyclable here at Riderwood, but there is a drop-off facility in Crofton, Maryland.
Plastic Bags and Packaging
For the plastic bags and packaging, here is the list. Plastic bags and packaging can also be taken to Giant or Target for recycling. CLICK on the image to view the chart in a new window to print out.
Scrap Metal
Most items that contain some form of recoverable metal can be recycled in the Scrap Metal bin. However, electronic devices (i.e., those electrical devices that are “smart”) should be brought to the Electronic Recycling Day, since the metals and chemicals in those devices need to be handled separately. CLICK on the image to view the Scrap Metal chart in a new window to print out.
Other Recyclables
There are smaller containers in the Recycle Rooms for the remaining items that can be recycled. CLICK on the image to view the chart in a new window to print out.
Food Scraps
Collect your kitchen food scraps for composting, instead of adding them to your trash or putting them down your garbage disposal. The Resident Recycling Committee and the Resident Advisory Council work with General Services to support the Food Scrap Drop-off Program at Riderwood. Resident volunteers are available to help interested residents get started collecting their food scraps and also to monitor the weekly drop off locations. Visit the RiderwoodLife FoodScraps page for more information.
Expired and Unused Medicines
Arbor Ridge collects medicines once a month, on the first Wednesday of the month. View the details here.
There is a Drug Disposal Box, accessible 24/7, at the local Montgomery County District 3 Police Station, located near the intersection of Route 29 and New Hampshire Avenue.
Electronics Collection
The Resident Recycling Committee and Riderwood General Services are now sponsoring Electronics Collection Days every six months, in April and October. A collection truck from A Better Way Computer Recycling parks on campus and accepts an assortment of used electronic equipment for recycling. The next collection will be in April, 2026. For details, check out the RiderwoodLife E-Cycle page.
Questions?
Send an email to recycling@riderwoodlife.com.
Last updated 11/4/25