Press Release - Celebrate America Recycles Day by Recycling Right!

In celebration of this holiday, The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) has created a neighborhood programs webpage and partnered with Recycle By City to introduce a NEW local online guide to help you recycle right in your community, check it out h...

Keep plastic bags AWAY from your recycling cart!

The chasing arrow symbol simply tells the kind of plastic that material is made of. Sometimes plastic items labeled with a chasing arrows symbol can go in your curbside bin or single stream drop off program, and sometimes they can not. In this case, plast...

HCW Public Drop Events for November - Get your appointment today!

SWALCO’s HCW collection program diverts HCW from the municipal waste stream by sending it to IEPA approved recycling and reuse facilities thereby reducing the volume and toxicity of our municipal waste stream. Our HCW program is a hybrid program consistin...

HB2296 begins January 1, 2020 - Rechargeable Batteries

Why? Safety of course! Lithium ion batteries may spark fires if improperly handled. Recycling facilities and truck fires have been reported due to batteries becoming damaged by the sorting or heavy equipment crushing the batteries.

The good news is our Hou...

Dehumidifer Disposal Demystified!

Finally purchased a newer model only to be stumped about how to properly recycle the old one? We've got your solution.

Please visit: http://www.swalco.org/285/Dehumidifiers to provide options for disposal.

Our Gurnee Facility DOES NOT collect ELECTRONICS

There are (4) sites available in Lake County for residential electronics recycling. Please visit our Electronics page for more information.

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We post information regarding our programs and events on a regular basis. Please take a moment sign up to keep tabs on what's coming up next!

NO LATEX PAINT, Please!

The IEPA states "At every collection, in every part of the state, paint is the most common material delivered by Illinois citizens. Today's latex (water-based) paint has a very low level of toxicity. Disposing of it at a household hazardous waste col...

Preparing your Household Chemical Waste for Drop Off - TidBit

Please visit our "How to Prepare your HCW for Delivery" page - This will provide you with the information you need!

Thank you for your consideration.

Our Administrative Staff hours vs. HCW Drop-Off Events

All household chemical waste drop-off events at our Gurnee facility are by APPOINTMENT ONLY. 

We truly understand how frustrating it can be to “do the right thing” – it take extra time and effort (and even gas money) but the fact is our HCW progra...