Kankakee County, IL Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Section 46-26 covers accumulation, storage, and disposal of refuse across the unincorporated county. No one may let refuse pile up in a building or on any improved or vacant property, and authorized junkyards and salvage yards are exempt only for materials that are actually part of their licensed business, not for other accumulated trash, and they still cannot violate the state Environmental Protection Act or the associated Title 35 administrative code provisions. The occupant, tenant, owner, or their agent bears responsibility for placing refuse in the containers required by Section 46-30 and for arranging its removal.

The code bars anyone from removing container covers or opening containers except to deposit or collect refuse or to clean them, and bars disturbing containers in a way that spills or scatters their contents. The removal-frequency rule is specific: refuse has to be hauled off any building or property not less than once every two weeks, so it cannot legally accumulate longer than that regardless of whether a licensed hauler or the property owner personally handles the pickup. This two-week floor works alongside the county's refuse hauler licensing system in Division 2 of the same chapter, which requires anyone who transports refuse commercially in the county to hold a health-department-issued hauler's license unless they are removing waste from their own single-family residence.