Solid Waste Management Division

Council Bluffs Recycling Center - 4441 Gifford Rd., Council Bluffs, IA 51501
(712) 328-4985

Hours of Operation

  • Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

  • Saturday 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Please Note:

Look Here!Containers to recycle phone books will be placed at the parking lots of No Frills at 1801 Valley View Drive and at Hy-Vee at 1706 North 16th Street beginning July 2, 2010.

These phone book containers will stay at these locations until August 2, 2010.

Look Here!The Council Bluffs Recycling Center is no longer accepting flood-damaged materials free of charge to City of Council Bluffs residents.

Look Here!Yard waste collection begins April 1 and shall be placed on the curb by 7:00 a.m. on your scheduled collection day.

Yard waste must be placed in trash cans, Poly-carts or paper yard waste bags (available from area retailers). These must either be clearly marked with a "Y", or residents can place an orange yard waste sticker on them. Stickers are only available at the Council Bluffs Recycling Center or at the Health Department and City Treasurer's Office located at City Hall. Yard waste in plastic bags will not be collected. Please gather limbs and braches into bundles not more than four feet in length, two feet in diameter and 60 pounds in weight. String or twine may be used to tie the bundles, but nylon, rope or wire in not acceptable.

Curbside Recycling Information

The City of Council Bluffs now offers curbside recycling to residents on city trash collection. Look for more details in your annual Recycling and Solid Waste Services Guide that every household receives in the spring of each year.

Curbside Recycling Brochure
Click the above link to find out all you need to know about curbside recycling.

(Note: The above document may take a few minutes to load and/or appear to not load at all. Please be patient with it, and the brochure will appear. Thank you!)

calendar-half-sheet-2010-for-web.jpgRecycling Schedule - Blue Week/Green Week - beginning April 1, 2010
Click here to download the calendar and see what materials are picked up each week. Blue weeks are paper and glass. Green weeks are plastics and metal.
Trash and Curbside Recycling FAQ's

Look Here!

Vacancy Policy for Waste Services
Are you headed south for the winter or are you going to be gone for an extended period of time? Do you have a vacant house? View the new vacancy policy for waste services by clicking on the above link.

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

All links are PDF's. If you do not have Adobe Reader, it can be downloaded for free with the link above.

Event Recycling

Make your next event greener by using Clear Stream portable recycling containers! Just click on the picture at the left to learn more about event recycling.

Mayor Hanafan regularly recycles on his curb!
Mayor Hanafan regularly recycles on his curb!

Recycling Center

The Council Bluffs Recycling Center is located on 12.8 acres of land at 4441 Gifford Road and is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday. It is the only facility of its kind in the Council Bluffs/Omaha metro area and has grown very rapidly since its opening 10 years ago. In 2007, there were more than 30,000 visitors to the Recycling Center.

The recycling facility currently receives most of its volume from the Council Bluffs residents on curbside recycling and from the recycling containers located at six city grocery stores. It also collects recyclables from containers located in rural Pottawattamie County, Mills County and the Recycling Center's drive-through bay. These items are hand-sorted, baled and sold to brokers and mills by Solid Waste Management Division Staff.

For more information about the Solid Waste Management Division or to schedule a tour or presentation with the Recycling Center, contact the office at (712) 328-4985.

© Copyright 2010 City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, All rights reserved.