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

24's Article III, Discarded Material, governs what happens once trash or recyclables hit the curb in unincorporated McHenry County. 040A vests ownership and responsibility for set-out discarded materials in the occupant until a licensed hauler actually removes them, at which point responsibility shifts to the hauler. 050 then locks that arrangement down from outside interference. Subsection A bars any collected recyclable material from going directly into a landfill; it must instead reach an appropriate resource recovery facility or recycling center. Subsection B makes it unlawful for anyone other than the authorized licensed hauler to collect mandated recyclable materials that a resident or business has set out specifically for that hauler's pickup, the county's anti-scavenging rule.

Subsection C protects exclusive service arrangements: a municipal waste hauler cannot provide waste removal to residential dwellings in an area where the county, township, municipality, or other authorized entity has already awarded an exclusive service contract to a different hauler. Together these three subsections replace an earlier page on this site that had cited Crystal Lake's own municipal garbage code, which does not reach unincorporated McHenry County, a separate legal jurisdiction from the City of Crystal Lake.