Norwalk, CT Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

Section 94-3A gives the Director authority to require recycling of items beyond the state's mandatory list, including corrugated cardboard, glass and metal food containers, newspapers, office paper, scrap metal, storage batteries, waste oil, yard waste, HDPE and PET plastic containers (plastics No. 1 through No. 7), dry cell batteries and scrap tires. Section 94-3B is the operative pickup rule: recyclable waste "shall be separated and kept apart from acceptable solid waste by the generator or their agent," packaged in the prescribed manner, and placed at the curb on the Director's schedule in City-provided containers, for collection by the City, a City contractor, or the property owner's private collector.

A collector may refuse any set-out load that mixes in items the Director has designated recyclable, and the Norwalk Transfer Station may likewise refuse noncompliant material. Section 94-3D adds that no one except the generator or their agent may pick through, remove, destroy or otherwise interfere with recyclable waste that has been set out, which forecloses informal scavenging of curbside recycling bins. Yard waste gets its own packaging rule under § 94-3C: trimmings and brush must be tied in bundles no longer than four feet and liftable by one person, while loose yard waste must go in an open-top container no larger than 65 gallons or in paper bags.