Local Rules

One Recycling Authority, Three Municipalities

Three municipalities share one recycling authority here. Cross the line into a fourth and none of it applies.

An unusual arrangement

In most places, recycling is run by the city, or by the county, or left to whichever private hauler you happen to use. Around Altoona it is none of those.

A shared authority spanning several municipalities but not a whole county is genuinely uncommon, and it produces a boundary that does not match anything else on the map. Understanding where that boundary falls saves a lot of confusion.

Which three, and why it matters

The IRC comprises:

• The City of Altoona
• Logan Township
• Hollidaysburg Borough

That is the whole membership. Not Blair County. Not the other boroughs.

Two things follow, and both come up constantly on the phone.

First, Logan Township is in. A great many addresses with an Altoona mailing address are actually in Logan Township, and people often assume that means different rules. For recycling, largely it does not — the township is an IRC member and the requirements broadly track the city's.

Second, everywhere else is out. Duncansville, Bellwood, Tyrone, Roaring Spring, Martinsburg, Williamsburg, Newry, Antis Township, Frankstown Township, Allegheny Township, Blair Township — none of them are IRC municipalities. Each sets its own arrangements, and advice about Altoona recycling does not carry across the line.

We confirm the municipality on every booking for exactly this reason.

Where Act 101 fits

The IRC exists because of a state statute. Pennsylvania's Act 101 of 1988 set recycling requirements for mandated municipalities, and the three came together to meet them jointly rather than separately.

The part of Act 101 most people actually run into concerns businesses rather than households. Commercial, institutional and municipal establishments in mandated municipalities are required to recycle:

• High-grade office paper
• Corrugated paper — cardboard
• Aluminum
• Leaf waste

If you run a business here, that list is an obligation rather than a suggestion, and cardboard in particular is worth setting up properly. On a fit-out or a retail changeover, packaging is usually the single largest volume on site.

What the IRC accepts

For yard waste and garden material the arrangements are refreshingly flexible.

Grass clippings, trimmings and garden refuse are accepted. Material may be:

• Loose
• Bundled with twine
• Placed in paper bags
• Bagged — bagged grass clippings are explicitly accepted

That is more permissive than many programs, which insist on one container type. Bundling brush with twine in particular is a practical option that a lot of areas do not allow.

Curbside recyclables go in your blue bin, set out for collection, and the IRC publishes guidance on what belongs in it. Contamination is the usual problem — one wrong item can affect a whole load, so it is worth reading rather than guessing.

Hollidaysburg Borough additionally runs its own seasonal collection of leaves and brush in spring and autumn.

Electronics have their own route

Televisions, computers and related electronic devices are accepted at the Buckhorn facility rather than going out with anything else.

This matters more than it sounds during a clear-out. An older house here will typically produce more electronics than anyone expects — a tube television in a basement, a couple of old monitors, a printer, a desktop nobody has switched on in a decade. None of them belong in a container, and setting them aside at the start is much easier than fishing them out later.

⚠️ Arrangements have changed recently

An honest note rather than a comprehensive one.

Recycling collection across the Altoona area has been through real change in recent years. What a given private hauler collects, and on what terms, has not been static, and some households have seen their recycling service alter.

We are not going to characterise a commercial dispute between other parties on our own website — it is not our business and we do not have both sides of it. What we will say is the useful part:

The IRC's offices are at 1301 12th Street, Suite 8, Altoona. They are the right people to ask, and they will give you a straight answer about what currently runs in your municipality.

Outside the three municipalities

If you are in one of the other Blair County communities, the position is simpler but less centralised: your borough or township sets its own arrangements, and you should ask them directly.

A few things we notice across the wider area:

• Smaller boroughs often have no municipal program at all and rely entirely on private haulers.
• Township residents frequently contract individually, so two neighbours can genuinely have different arrangements.
• Farm properties in Morrisons Cove and Sinking Valley usually handle their own disposal entirely, which brings its own questions — particularly around chemicals and fuel.

Where a container fits

A roll-off is not a substitute for your recycling or your yard waste stream, and we would not suggest otherwise. It is for the volume those routes were never built for:

• Tree removal, where one mature tree exceeds any bagging arrangement
• Whole-garden clearance, especially on a property that has been let go
• Storm damage, which arrives all at once and does not wait for a season
• Barn and outbuilding clearance out in the Cove and Sinking Valley
• Renovation debris, which is not recyclable household material at all
• Rental turnover, which is neither recycling nor yard waste

One practical note: if you book a container for green waste, keep it clean. A load of pure brush and prunings has a route that the same load with fence panels and plastic pots mixed in does not — and nearly all exterior timber is treated, which puts it outside the clean stream entirely.