FAYETTEVILLE — The city is rolling out several new ways to recycle.

More containers will be placed at apartment complexes. Bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans will appear on the square. And a new place to drop off recyclables will open in the heart of the city.

“There’s a lot of waste that’s being thrown out that could be recycled,” said Brian Pugh, city waste reduction coordinator.

More than half the city’s residents are renters, but few recycling options are available at apartments. The city in late 2011 began rotating containers through five apartment complexes for a day at a time.

Participation was low because of the irregular schedule, Pugh said.

The city is placing six new containers permanently at complexes. The containers were bought with money from a state Department of Environmental Quality grant and reserves in the city Solid Waste and Recycling budget.

“What we’re trying to do is to make it more convenient,” Pugh said. “If people have a container there all the time, the chances are they’ll participate.”

The containers have slots for cardboard; mixed paper; aluminum cans; steel cans; and Nos. 1 and 2 plastics.

Maple Manor, Hill Place, The Cliffs, North Creekside and The Links at Fayetteville have been participating in the revolving bin program. Permanent containers could be placed at those complexes, Pugh said. The complexes are charged 95 cents per unit for the service, and pickup is available as many times as needed.

Maple Manor received a new container about a month ago, said Dawn Hinrichs, property manager for the complex off Shiloh Drive west of Interstate 540. Hinrichs said she’s starting to see more use from her tenants and those in apartments nearby.

The city has also applied for a grant that would pay for indoor receptacles — either reusable bags or small plastic bins — that tenants could use to carry recyclables to outdoor containers.

Nine bins on the square are for cans and bottles that otherwise might be thrown into trash cans. Pugh said the bins will have removable message placards as part of a marketing and education campaign the Solid Waste and Recycling Division will launch later this year.

Pugh said he expects the Marion Orton Recycling Drop-off Center to open in mid-July on North Street. The center is being built just west of the Scull Creek Trail crossing. It will be similar to the city’s other recycling drop-off on Happy Hollow Road. Pugh said it should be more visible to people living in north and central Fayetteville, especially nearby apartment dwellers who don’t have containers at their complexes.

Pugh said an employee was hired to staff the drop-off center. The rest of the additions can be handled with existing route drivers and trucks, he added.

Sarah Marsh, Ward 1 alderwoman, said she hopes the city can save money in the long run by increasing recycling volume.

“Anything that we can do to reduce landfill waste is good,” Marsh said. “We pay by the ton for everything that goes to the landfill, so anytime we can reduce that, it’s good economics for citizens.”

The initiatives are all part of the city’s goal to get 70 percent of single-family households participating in the curbside pickup program by 2015. City officials also want to provide recycling containers for 30 percent of the city’s apartment complexes during the next two years.