Youngstown, OH Trash & Recycling: Pickup Rules & Schedules (2026)

§ 979.03 of the Youngstown Codified Ordinances, carried forward from the 1967 Code at §93.03, prohibits depositing glass, bottles, broken dishes, tin cans, or any other incombustible substance that falls outside the chapter's own definition of 'garbage' at § 979.01(a) into a garbage receptacle. The rule exists because the City's collection system is not meant to handle incombustible or recyclable-grade material mixed into ordinary household garbage; separate handling for recyclables is instead covered by § 979.15. § 979.04 gives the enforcement mechanic: when the authorized garbage collector finds prohibited articles in a receptacle, the collector does not empty it.

Instead the collector reports the contents to the Commissioner of Engineering, describing the kind of articles found. The Commissioner can then take whatever action is necessary to correct the situation, and if the same receptacle repeats the violation after that, the repeat is treated as a violation of the chapter and punished under § 979.99. In practice this means a resident who mixes glass or tin cans into the weekly trash cart risks a missed pickup on top of any fine, since the collector's first response is to skip the receptacle rather than remove noncompliant material.