Recycle Your Glass in Arlington

Here’s something many Arlington residents don’t realize: glass bottles and jars cannot go in your blue curbside recycling bin. Due to market conditions, glass recycling has shifted from the single-stream curbside cart to dedicated drop-off bins at several locations across the county. The good news is that Arlington’s glass drop-off bins are easy to spot — look for the distinctive purple receptacles — and you can leave lids and labels on jars, since they go in the same bins. Even better: the glass collected at these sites is sent to a crushing and recycling facility in Fairfax County where it’s turned into sand and gravel used in local paving, construction, and landscaping projects— so your wine bottles literally end up in Arlington’s roads and parks.

Arlington currently has five drop-off locations: Quincy Park at Washington Boulevard and N. Quincy Street; the Arlington Trades Center at 2700 S. Taylor Street; Aurora Hills Community Center at 735 18th Street S.; the Madison Community Center; and the former Lee Community Center at 5722 Langston Blvd. . As of early 2025, the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan calls for adding two new drop-off points — one in National Landing and one along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor — so the network should continue to grow. For the current list of locations and hours, visit the County website.