In Fort Worth, you can recycle corrugated plastic campaign yard signs by bringing them to AP&J Recycling at 990 Haltom Road, Suite 140, with the metal or wooden stakes removed. Yard signs should not go in your blue curbside bin, because city sorting systems are not set up for large, rigid sheets of polypropylene with wire attached. At AP&J the signs are ground up with other polypropylene scrap and sold as raw material for new plastic products. Call (682) 841-1303 before you come so we can plan for your drop-off.
Key takeaways
- Most campaign yard signs are corrugated polypropylene, a plastic with good recycling value when it is kept clean and separate.
- Blue bins are the wrong place for them: sorting facilities are not built to handle large plastic sheets or wire stakes.
- Pull the stakes, stack the signs flat, and call ahead before bringing them in.
- AP&J has accepted campaign signs at no charge from campaigns, groups and individuals.
- The ground plastic becomes raw material for new molded products, such as paint containers.
Why campaign signs can’t go in your blue bin
Curbside recycling is designed for household packaging: bottles, jugs, cans, cartons and paper. When that material reaches a sorting facility, it runs across screens, magnets and optical sorters that separate items by size, shape and material. A two-foot sheet of corrugated plastic doesn’t fit that system. It can ride along with cardboard and contaminate the paper bales, or jam equipment along the way.
The stakes make it worse. Most yard signs are held up by steel wire frames, often called H-stakes, and wire can wrap around sorting equipment or damage it. Wooden stakes are trash at a plastic sorting line. Because of all this, Fort Worth and the other large North Texas cities have not accepted yard signs in curbside carts. Check your own city’s list if you live outside Fort Worth, but expect the answer to be no.
That leaves two choices: the landfill, or a recycler that handles that plastic directly. Every election cycle produces a large number of signs, and they don’t break down in a landfill, so the second choice is worth the short drive.
What yard signs are made of
Most of the rigid signs you see in yards and along roadsides are corrugated plastic, sometimes called coroplast or “corflute.” It looks like plastic cardboard: two thin flat sheets joined by a series of ribs, which keeps it light and stiff. It is almost always made of polypropylene (resin code 5), the same plastic used in many automotive parts, caps and tubs.
Polypropylene is one of the resins AP&J processes every day, which is why yard signs are a good fit for us. The printing on the face is a thin layer of ink, and it does not prevent the plastic from being reground.
| Part of the sign | Material | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Rigid sign face | Corrugated polypropylene | Bring to AP&J for recycling |
| Wire H-stake or frame | Steel wire | Remove before drop-off; reuse it or take it to a scrap metal recycler |
| Wooden stake | Wood, often with staples or nails | Remove before drop-off; reuse it or dispose of it separately |
| Bag-style sign (thin sleeve over a wire frame) | Usually polyethylene film | Ask us before bringing these |
| Tape, stickers, zip ties | Mixed materials | Remove what you easily can |
How to prepare signs for drop-off
- Pull every stake. Slide the wire H-stakes out of the flutes and pull or cut off any wooden stakes. Signs with the hardware already removed are quick for us to accept and process. You can bring the metal stakes too; we recycle them separately as scrap metal.
- Shake off dirt and remove trash. A bit of mud is fine. Pull off loose tape, zip ties and anything that isn’t part of the sign.
- Stack the signs flat. Flat stacks load and unload faster than loose piles, and they fit better in a car or truck bed. Tie or band them if you have a lot.
- Call ahead. Phone the office at (682) 841-1303, Monday through Friday between 8 and 5, before you head over, especially with a large load, so we can be ready for you and confirm the drop-off details.
- Bring them to 990 Haltom Road, Suite 140, Fort Worth, TX 76117. We are in east Fort Worth. Drop-offs are Monday through Friday during office hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Campaign staff, volunteers, neighborhood groups and individual homeowners can all bring signs. If you are collecting signs left behind after an election, please only take signs where you have permission to collect them.
Is there a charge?
AP&J has accepted campaign yard signs at no charge. When the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covered local sign recycling in 2021, it reported that AP&J was taking signs for free and that the plastic was headed for one-gallon paint bottles. We still take campaign signs free of charge. If you are bringing a very large quantity, such as a whole campaign’s inventory, call first so we can plan for the volume.
What happens to the signs after you drop them off
Once the signs arrive, they go into our polypropylene stream. We run them through industrial grinders that cut the sheets into small, uniform flakes called regrind. That regrind is sold to manufacturers who melt it and mold it into new products. Signs collected in the past have been destined for one-gallon paint bottles, and polypropylene regrind also ends up in items such as buckets, storage bins, automotive parts and other molded goods.
This is the same process we use for factory scrap from manufacturers across North Texas. If you want to see how grinding works in more detail, read our article on plastic grinding and toll processing.
Reuse before you recycle
Recycling is the right end point for a sign, but it does not have to be the first stop. Campaigns can save undated signs for the next race. Wire stakes can be reused for years. Blank sides of corrugated signs make good garage sale signs, painting drop sheets, garden markers and backing boards for kids’ school projects. Once a sign is worn out or dated, bring it in.
If you put up a sign for a candidate, ask the campaign whether it wants the sign back before you recycle it. Some campaigns keep a stock of signs for future races.
Tips for campaigns and organizers
A campaign can plan for recycling from the start. Print signs on corrugated polypropylene, keep election dates off the design if you want to reuse them, and tell volunteers to pull stakes as they collect. After the election, gather signs in one place, bundle them flat, and make one call to arrange a single drop-off.
Businesses and organizations with larger amounts of plastic signage, such as retailers changing seasonal displays or real estate offices retiring old signs, should talk with us about commercial recycling. For larger cleanouts we also offer roll-off hauling.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put campaign signs in my Fort Worth recycling cart?
No. Yard signs are large, rigid sheets of plastic, often with metal attached, and curbside sorting systems are not designed to handle them. Take them to a specialty recycler such as AP&J instead.
What plastic are yard signs made of?
Most rigid yard signs are corrugated polypropylene, resin code 5. Some cheaper signs are thin plastic bags slipped over a wire frame, which are usually polyethylene film and are handled differently.
Do I need to remove the metal stakes?
Yes. Please remove all wire and wooden stakes before you bring signs in. It makes the signs much faster to process, and metal mixed into plastic can damage grinding equipment.
What do recycled yard signs become?
The signs are ground into polypropylene flakes and sold to manufacturers as raw material. Signs dropped off at AP&J have been slated to become one-gallon paint bottles, and polypropylene regrind is also used in buckets, bins and other molded products.
Have a stack of signs after the election? Call AP&J at (682) 841-1303 to set up your drop-off, or send us a message through our contact form. We’ll make sure your signs become something useful instead of landfill.
