Montgomery County is broken into two districts for trash collection: One district receives county trash and recycling pickup; the other receives county recycling services but must use private companies for trash. (Municipalities, such as the Town of Kensington and the City of Rockville, contract with private companies for both waste and recycling.) The county collects trash from about 92,000 single-family homes, and recyclables from about 218,000 single-family homes in nonmunicipal portions of the county. There are six facilities for receiving and processing trash or recyclables plus two landfills that are full and now closed. Nonrecyclable waste is burned at a facility in Dickerson. The heat is used to generate electricity or steam, metal is removed and recycled if possible, and the ash byproduct is reused with asphalt for paving roads. Here’s a look at trash and recycling in Montgomery County, by the numbers:
