The City of Lakewood is proud to support many types of sustainability initiatives designed to conserve energy, increase recycling, preserve our region’s waterways, and enhance the quality of life for residents and visitors. Click through the tabs below to learn more about our green initiatives.
On May 1, 2023, the City of Lakewood adopted our Climate Action Plan. This plan is a guide for the city to reduce citywide emissions to zero by 2050, saving money through reduced energy costs and improving our residents’ quality of life.
The city’s creation process involved the employment of a consulting team which gathered public input through public meetings, a Decarbonization Advisory Group, and focus groups.
The Climate Action Plan outlines many measures to achieve this lofty goal, including:
The City of Lakewood offers a robust refuse and recycling program that aims to properly dispose of and recycle household materials. This is achieved through our weekly curbside collection, the Refuse and Recycling Center, yard waste collection, and leaf pickup.
Residential refuse and recycling materials are collected weekly by the City’s collection team. Single family and multi-family (2, 3, and 4-family) homes are provided two carts: one black/green for refuse, and one blue cart for recycling. Additionally, bulk items like furniture and appliances are collected every week on the same day as regular collection.
The city’s Refuse and Recycling Center is available to Lakewood residents to safely dispose of a wide range of items like hazardous chemicals, paint, electronics, tires, furniture, and more.
Every week, the Refuse Division collects yard waste for composting. The City of Lakewood is a leader when it comes to composted waste material, boasting one of the highest rates in Cuyahoga County. In 2025, Lakewood composted 19,969.71 tons of organic material.
In the fall, Leaf Pickup is performed by the Streets and Forestry Division. Collection teams work to collect leaves from each street as many times as possible before winter weather arrives. Learn more on our Residential Leaf Collection page.
Composting at home reduces your carbon emissions, keeps organic material out of landfills, and provides you with valuable organic material that you can use in your garden or on your lawn!
When organic material like leaves, food scraps, and grass clippings winds up in landfills, it decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. Composting this material can greatly reduce those emissions.
As a city with a significant portion of infrastructure designed over 100 years ago, Lakewood has been working diligently to replace and refurbish its combined storm and sanitary sewer system to a modern separated system. This newer design reduces harmful untreated overflows that can occur during heavy rain events. Clean Water Lakewood is the comprehensive program that seeks to achieve these goals:
Learn more by visiting our Clean Water Lakewood webpage.
The Adopt-a-Drain program is a volunteer, community-based initiative designed to protect our local waterways and improve stormwater management. Through this program, residents, businesses, and organizations can “claim” a specific storm drain and commit to keeping the surface of the grate clear of debris. By taking a few minutes each month to maintain these drains, volunteers play a vital role in keeping our neighborhood clean and our infrastructure functioning efficiently.
When you ride your bike instead of driving, you’re making a choice that’s good for both your health and the environment. Commit to an active lifestyle and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by choosing your bicycle over your car when you can.
Lakewood is committed to making biking safe and accessible. Visit our Biking Lakewood page to learn about the ways Lakewood is improving bicycle safety, and read our Active Transportation Plan for details on how the City plans to implement these improvements through future infrastructure projects.
Lakewood supports EV drivers by providing several public EV charging stations throughout the city. See our EV Charging Map to find an EV charging station near you.
Help us reduce single-use plastic bottle waste by filling your reusable water bottle at one of the City’s water bottle refill stations. To find a refill station near you, see our Water Bottle Refill Map.
Lakewood has been recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City USA honoree for 50 consecutive years. We take our commitment to urban forestry seriously, and we take pride in the tree canopy that gives our city its beauty, character, shade, and clean air. Read about the ways the City of Lakewood is protecting and growing our tree canopy and how you can get involved!
Gardening helps the environment by cleaning the air, supporting local wildlife, and reducing waste and emissions. Whether you’re gardening in your own yard or volunteering with a community gardening group, what you plant makes a difference.
Save money and energy! Learn about energy efficiency programs and partnerships in Lakewood to see how you can benefit from home appliance upgrades, utility credits, and more.
The Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC) is an organization of local governments in northeast Ohio that work cooperatively to provide cost savings for individual customers. The city of Lakewood participates as a NOPEC community, promoting environmental awareness and cost savings for the community through its electric service aggregation program.
Consider participating in local energy incentive programs, including First Energy/The Illuminating Company’s online home energy analyzer which helps residents gain a better understanding of household energy use.
Solar Switch organizes group purchasing of residential solar panels to help homeowners receive a significantly discounted price for a solar panel installation. Visit the Cuyahoga County Solar Co-op online for more information.
Learn more about the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Stormwater Management Program and how you can reduce your stormwater fees through stormwater credits.
Customers can obtain credit on their stormwater fees by taking measures to reduce the stormwater rate or volume flowing from their property into the regional stormwater system. Workshops are available on the website.
