Where Can You Drop Off Recycling in Indianapolis in 2026?

Marion County households can drop off recycling for free at seven City of Indianapolis sites: Sahm Park, Broad Ripple Park, the Pike Township Trustee Office, Southwestway Park, Riverside Park, the Julia Carson Government Center and Garfield Park. Curbside pickup is the other option, and in 2026 it is still a subscription from LRS at $9.00 a month.

That site list comes from the City’s Find a Recycling Drop-Off Location page on indy.gov, which we checked on October 12, 2026. We do not run any of these sites.

Which Free Recycling Drop Offs Are Still Open in Indianapolis?

Seven, and all of them are free. The City’s drop-off page lists them by area:

• North: Sahm Park, 6801 E. 91st St.; Broad Ripple Park, at the Evanston Ave. entrance, 6380 Evanston Ave.; and the Pike Township Trustee Office, 5665 Lafayette Rd.
• South: Southwestway Park, 7501 Mann Rd., in the back parking lot by the baseball diamonds.
• West: Riverside Park, 1720 Burdsal Pkwy.
• Central: the Center Township Trustee Office at the Julia Carson Government Center, 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway N. Drive; and Garfield Park, 2345 Pagoda Dr.
• East: no site listed.

The page also links to a City map of the drop-off sites. The map says the boxes are for Marion County residents and residential recycling only.

The page publishes no hours for the sites, and it does not say how often the boxes are emptied or how much they hold. For a question about a particular site, the contact it lists is the City’s Office of Sustainability, at 317-327-4000, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Why Did Some Indianapolis Recycling Drop Offs Close?

Illegal dumping. Fox 59 reported on August 25, 2025, that the City had shut down at least three drop-off sites within a week, at 9835 Fall Creek Road, 8130 Southport Road, and 71st Street and Binford Boulevard, citing what the Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) called bad actors dumping there illegally. WTHR reported the next day that all three sat on Kroger lots and that, according to DPW, Kroger asked the City to remove them.

The far east side had already lost a site. In May 2024, Fox 59 reported that the drop-off behind the Kroger at 11101 Pendleton Pike had closed, and DPW said too many people had been dumping there illegally.

In its August 2025 report, Fox 59 also quoted DPW as writing that it had no new locations willing to host the bins, so there would be fewer sites. The City’s drop-off page lists no east-side site today. Under “East,” it asks property owners interested in hosting a site to email sustainindy@indy.gov.

On the current list, five sites are parks and two are township trustee offices; none is on a store lot.

What Can Go in a Recycling Drop Off Box, and What Can’t?

Clean, dry, loose containers and paper. The drop-off page and the City’s Recycling 101 page carry the same accepted list:

• Glass, all colors
• Plastic bottles, jugs and tubs, with plastics #1, #2 and #5 the most reliably recycled in Indianapolis
• Plastic and paper cups from hot or cold drinks
• Cartons from perishable foods like milk, nondairy milk and juice, but not “Tetra Pak” cartons for shelf-stable milk or broth
• Aluminum, tin and steel food and beverage cans
• Cardboard: corrugated cardboard, paperboard, paper egg cartons, and paper or paperboard cans
• Mixed paper: newspaper, magazines, junk mail and office paper

The same list keeps three groups out:

• Plastic bags, plastic film and polystyrene foam. Recycling 101 says many local supermarkets and grocery stores, Kroger and Target among them, take plastic bags and film, and it tells you to check with your store for details.
• #3 plastic (PVC), such as plumbing pipe, credit cards and garden hoses.
• #6 plastic, which includes polystyrene foam and can include takeout clamshell containers.

The drop-off page’s loading rules are short: glass, plastic and cans rinsed, clean and dry; paper dry and free of food residue; everything loose, never bagged, because bags can get caught in the sorting equipment; cardboard boxes broken down; and nothing left on the ground outside a box. Recycling 101 adds that items should be larger than a credit card, that caps stay on bottles and jugs, and that shredded paper goes in a recyclable paper bag. For anything you are unsure about, its rule of thumb is “When in doubt, throw it out,” meaning the regular trash, unless the item is hazardous or electronic.

Electronics and scrap metal are not on the accepted list either: the drop-off page sends most electronics to a City ToxDrop location, and Recycling 101 says there are many local private options for scrap metal.

Is Curbside Recycling Free in Indianapolis Yet, or Still a Subscription?

Still a subscription. In 2026, curbside recycling in Indianapolis is an optional service from LRS (Lakeshore Recycling Systems), picked up every other week. Recycling 101 lists the price as $9.00 a month in 2026 and $9.27 a month in 2027. The City’s recycling pickup page adds that under the City’s contract, subscribers are not to be charged more than $9.00 a month, billed at $27.00 quarterly (checked October 2026).

If DPW or LRS collects your weekly trash, the pickup page says you can subscribe by calling LRS at 317-245-4444 or signing up online. The same page sends billing questions and missed recycling pickups to LRS, not the City. If your service moved to LRS from Republic or WM, Recycling 101 says you keep your existing bin, and new subscribers get an LRS-branded cart. For what goes in the cart, the pickup page points to Recycling 101, the same list the drop-off boxes use.

The change comes in 2028. Recycling 101 says universal curbside recycling begins that year, with pickup at all households at no additional cost, and its footnote defines all households as single-family and multi-family households of four units or fewer. Until then, the drop-off sites are the free option.

Where Do Glass, Cardboard and Foam Go for Indianapolis Households?

Glass and cardboard go in a drop-off box or, if you subscribe, your LRS cart. Foam goes in neither.

Glass

All colors go in, rinsed and loose. Leave caps on bottles and jugs: Recycling 101 says caps are too small to make it through sorting alone, even a metal cap on a glass bottle.

Cardboard

Break every box down and keep it dry. Recycling 101 says cardboard damaged by water, oils or food residue lowers the quality of an entire batch of recycled paper.

Foam

Recycling 101 says polystyrene foam, often called Styrofoam, can go to RecycleForce’s staffed drive-through at 816 N. Sherman Drive at no cost during its normal working hours. RecycleForce’s own materials list says it accepts residential foam in limited quantities, no more than one carload, and that it cannot take recyclables contaminated with food waste. Check its hours before you go.

What Happens If You Leave Bags Beside a Full Indianapolis Recycling Box?

It counts as illegal dumping, even when the bags hold nothing but recyclables. The drop-off page says recyclables left on the ground because they will not fit in the box are illegal dumping, and that items left outside the containers cannot be recycled. Illegal dumpers, the page says, face administrative hearings and fines or fees of up to $2,500.

The bags cause a second problem. Bagged recycling breaks the loose-only rule above even inside the box, and a bag of household trash is worse: the page lists bags of household garbage with furniture, bikes, mattresses, wood of any kind, children’s toys, hazardous waste and debris as items that count as illegal dumping when left at a site.

The page does not say what to do when a box is full. Our advice: keep the load in your car and try another site on the list, or come back another day.

For what the boxes cannot take, the page names legal routes: furniture and bulky items go to the Citizens’ Transfer Station or out on your heavy trash day, extra bags of household trash go to the transfer station, and household hazardous waste goes to a ToxDrop location. Our ToxDrop guide covers that program, and our list of Indianapolis dumps, landfills and transfer stations covers the rest.

How Do You Recycle a Pile of Moving Boxes in Indianapolis?

Sort the pile, break it down, keep it dry, and spread it over more than one trip or pickup. A move can leave more flattened cardboard than one car, one cart or one box will hold.

• Sort first. Pull out polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) for RecycleForce, plastic bags and film for a grocery store bin, and anything else the boxes do not take.
• Break every box down and stack the flat pieces somewhere dry, like a garage or basement, until they go out.
• Split the drop-off trips. Take what fits in your car. If the box is full when you get there, the cardboard goes home with you, not beside the box.
• Use the cart if you subscribe. LRS picks up every other week, so a big pile can take several pickups. Recycling 101 says recycling goes inside the cart, loose and not bagged. It does not say what LRS does with extra cardboard set beside the cart, so ask LRS (317-245-4444) before you leave any out.
• Pass good boxes on. Sturdy boxes can go to the next person who is moving. Recycling 101 lists the Buy Nothing Project, a platform for sharing items you no longer need with people in your own community.

The moving boxes are usually the easy part of a move-out. What is left after them, like a worn-out mattress, a broken bookcase, an old recliner or bags of trash, cannot go in a City drop-off box, and that is where we come in. Moving-related cleanouts are part of what our junk removal crews do. We look at everything in person before naming a price, you are under no obligation to take it, and payment waits until the job is done. Hazardous materials such as paint, chemicals, fuel and oil stay off our truck.

Beyond Marion County, our crews also take on junk removal in Plainfield. If you wonder where a load goes once it leaves your driveway, see what happens to junk after a haul.

In Summary

• Marion County households can drop off recycling for free at the seven sites the City of Indianapolis lists on indy.gov (checked October 12, 2026), five at parks and two at township trustee offices, none on the east side and none with published hours.
• Fox 59 reported in August 2025 that at least three sites closed within a week over illegal dumping, and WTHR reported that all three were on Kroger lots. The Pendleton Pike site behind a Kroger closed in May 2024, Fox 59 reported.
• The boxes take clean, dry, loose glass, plastic bottles, jugs and tubs, cups, cartons, cans, cardboard and mixed paper. Plastic bags, film, foam, #3 plastic and #6 plastic stay out.
• Curbside recycling is still an LRS subscription, picked up every other week, at $9.00 a month in 2026 and $9.27 a month in 2027. Recycling 101 says universal curbside at no additional cost begins in 2028 for households of four units or fewer.
• Polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) goes to RecycleForce at 816 N. Sherman Drive, which takes residential Styrofoam in limited quantities, no more than one carload. Glass goes in with caps on; cardboard goes in broken down and dry.
• Bags or boxes left beside a full drop-off box count as illegal dumping, which carries fines or fees of up to $2,500 under the City’s rules as listed in October 2026.
• For a pile of moving boxes: sort it, break it down, keep it dry, and spread it over more than one trip or pickup.