Solid Waste Management - Education and Information

Waste Management Education

Education and Information Resources

Public health sanitation | Waste management
Lead poisoning prevention & Healthy Homes
Environmental laboratory

The Office of Waste Management works with others to initiate source reduction, recycling, and educational programs for residents, businesses, institutions, government agencies, waste haulers and landfill operators and encourages recycling market development in Saint Louis County.

View our Residential Recycling Directory. (You will need Acrobat Reader.)
Read our mission statement.
Waste Management businesses: get copies of forms.
This takes you to our "Form Finder" service.
Select Forms by Department = Health and
click the "Find Forms by Dept" button.
You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

For more information:

The Office of Waste Management produces

A quarterly newsletter: Resource Line - Update on Solid Waste Alternatives,

For information about this, or for more information about recycling, please call or visit our office at

Saint Louis County Department of Health
111 South Meramec Avenue, 2nd floor
Clayton, MO 63105
Phone: (314) 615-8958
Fax: (314) 615-6435.

Our mission

The mission of the Saint Louis County Office of Waste Management:

To facilitate the development of recycling programs that are cost effective, convenient, efficient, and result in high participation and recovery rates;
To encourage the use of recycled products; and
To promote source reduction and waste prevention to reduce the amount and toxicity of solid waste reaching landfills in Saint Louis County.

This office was established in 1991 to develop programs that enable the County to conserve valuable natural resources, extend landfill life spans, achieve the state and County mandate of 40% reduction in the generation rate of solid waste by 1998, and serve as a model solid waste management program for other Missouri counties.

Technical assistance, grant monies for municipalities, and funds for unincorporated areas of Saint Louis County are available to develop and promote new and/or expanded recycling and source reduction efforts throughout the County.

Source reduction is also called "pre-cycling". It simply means generating less material that has to be handled for recycling or disposal. Source reduction may be accomplished by simple changes in purchasing behavior, such as buying products that use only a small amount of packaging. Precycling can be a powerful tool for extending the longevity of our landfills.

Recycling, the reuse of materials from used products for the production of new products, is the other key to the trash problem, and a solution that conserves valuable natural resources while extending landfill life spans. The Office of Waste Management works with businesses and communities to increase the scope, convenience, cost-effectiveness, and participation rate of recycling programs throughout Saint Louis County.