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Recycling at Ware

HEAD TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR ASHEVILLE & BUNCOMBE COUNTY RESOURCES OUTSIDE OF WARE.

PLEASE READ THIS PAGE THOROUGHLY BEFORE PARTICIPATING IN OUR RECYCLING PROGRAM - things change.

We will take back any container or waste material from products purchased at Ware and dispose of appropriately, whether that's commercial composting or recycling of materials not accepted by curbside recycling in Buncombe County. Recycling is not a perfect solution to consumer waste. (You can learn more about that here.) It is, however, one of the best solutions we have available to us at the moment - when done correctly. Read on to learn more about how you can participate in our waste reduction efforts.

Recycling bin at Ware in Asheville, NC. We collect the containers of beauty and personal care products purchased from our shop for responsible disposal through Terracycle.

In all cases of collection, the materials/products must be empty, clean, and dry. However, please read the very specific guidelines below for each type of collection. Failing to follow these prerequisites results in that product (and often anything it contaminates) being sent to the landfill.

Recycling is to be brought in only during store hours.

 

Currently collecting:

PERSONAL CARE & BEAUTY CONTAINERS

We only collect recycling for beauty and personal care product containers that were purchased from Ware. Please first remove vessel parts that are curbside recyclable. Here's a guide for that. 

This recycling stream facilitated by Terracycle.

 

RAZORS, BLADES, & PACKAGING

This receptacle accepts all brands of blades and razors (handles and disposable units, and replaceable-blade cartridge units), double-edged blades, rigid plastic packaging, and flexible plastic bag packaging.

This collection does not accept electric shavers or related accessories, shave brushes or shaving cream packaging (but that can go in our other recycling boxes, if it's not a pressurized can).

Razor recycling sponsored by Gillette and facilitated by Terracycle.

 

DISPOSABLE MASKS

This receptacle recycles non-woven disposable plastic-based masks including 3-ply surgical, dust masks, KN95, and N95 masks.

This collection does not accept other types of protective gear like gloves, hair nets, or lab coats and garments. Do not include paper or cloth masks.Do not included medical waste. This applies to material contaminated with blood or bodily fluids that originate from health care facilities, hospitals, physicians' offices, dental offices, blood banks, veterinary clinics, research laboratories, etc. Typical residue from use of masks in public spaces is expected.

Mask recycling facilitated by Terracycle.

 

THE TOTE BAG EXCHANGE

So, technically, this isn't a recycling program. It's better—it's a reuse program! Bring any clean, reusable, and washable shopping bag into our shop and deposit into the cute wooden crate that says "take a tote, leave a tote". We make these bags available to anyone who forgot their reusables at home, but would rather not take one of our (post-consumer recycled material) paper shopping bags.  

THE JAR EXCHANGE

Another reuse program! We collect some containers for free use by customers at our refill station. See this page for all the details on our jar exchange. We ask that you read that page thoroughly before bringing your jars into Ware, as we have to be particular about what we can accept.

 

Looking for textile recycling? We have ended this program for two reasons: our new store is too small to house it and you can now find the very same receptacles in many convenient locations around Asheville. For instance, Earth Fare, Regeneration Station, and the West Asheville Transfer Station all have convenient receptacles for Asheville residents to recycle textiles with GreenZone. This is the same company whose bin we were hosting.

Recycling in Asheville (& Buncombe County)

The below applies to all folks living in Buncombe County who have municipal recycling collection. If you'd like to download it to print at home, CLICK HERE!

A guide for curbside recycling in Asheville, NC and Buncombe County by Ware. A Refill shop in West Asheville.

 

While many things are collected locally by our municipal curbside recycling, many more materials and items can be efficiently recycled by the City and their partners. For this reason, we are fortunate to have Asheville GreenWorks in our community. Every other month, they facilitate a Hard 2 Recycle day, where they accept just that - many of the things that are hard to find recycling programs for. This includes items like: styrofoam, computer monitors and cables, bicycles, and more. Additionally, the City of Asheville, Buncombe County, and GreenWorks banded together to produce a search engine called the Recycling Wizard that gives users all of their local options for recycling when they input the thing they're trying to dispose of.