Recycling Requirements

Alabama imposes no mandatory recycling on residents or businesses. Under the Solid Wastes and Recyclable Materials Management Act, every county and municipality must file an…

Arizona forbids selling plastic bottles and rigid containers unless they carry a molded resin identification code, the familiar number inside the chasing-arrows triangle. A.R.S. §…

Arkansas Code § 8-9-403 bans open burning of tires, forbids maintaining a waste tire site, and requires used or waste tires to go only to a permitted processing facility, collection…

HB22-1355 created the Colorado Producer Responsibility Program under CRS 25-17-701 requiring producers of packaging and paper to fund universal curbside recycling access for residents…

Connecticut General Statutes Section 22a-241b designates specific items as mandatory recyclables statewide, requiring residents and businesses to separate them from trash. DEEP…

Delaware's Universal Recycling Law (7 Del. C. Sections 6051-6060) requires waste haulers to offer single-stream recycling to all homes, multifamily properties, and businesses…

Washington DC requires everyone to separate discarded solid waste into three streams at the point of discard: recyclable materials, compostable materials, and trash, under the…

Florida Statute 403.706(2)(a) requires every county to run a recyclable-materials recycling program built to hit a 75 percent recycling goal by December 31, 2020, stepping up from 40…

Georgia prohibits disposing of yard trimmings in municipal solid waste landfills. Grass, leaves, and limbs may only go to construction-and-demolition landfills, inert-waste landfills…

Hawaii's HI-5 program under HRS 342G-110 places a 5-cent refundable deposit on every beverage container sold statewide. Distributors pay the deposit plus a per-container fee to the…

Idaho prohibits disposing of lead-acid batteries in landfills or incinerating them and requires that they be recycled. Every battery retailer must take back used batteries at the point…

Illinois requires every county to develop and maintain a solid waste management plan with recycling provisions, and bans landfill disposal of landscape waste, electronics, and white…

Indiana sets a statutory goal of recycling at least 50% of its municipal waste (IC 13-20-25-1) but does not require households or businesses to recycle. The enforceable duty falls on…

Iowa Code Chapter 455D bans yard waste, lead-acid batteries, waste oil, and certain electronics from landfills statewide. The Iowa Beverage Containers Control Law (455C) imposes a…

Kansas has no statewide mandate forcing residents or businesses to recycle. But under the Solid Waste Management Act, every county's solid waste management plan must set a schedule for…

Kentucky does not require residents or businesses to recycle. State law treats recycling as a policy priority, not a duty. Counties run solid waste programs, and only waste haulers…

Louisiana's Solid Waste Recycling and Reduction Law, La. R.S. 30:2411, sets a statewide goal of cutting the waste stream 30 percent through waste reduction, reuse, and recycling by…

Maine sets a statewide 50% solid-waste recycling and reuse goal under 38 MRS § 2132 and operates a nationally pioneering Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system for packaging…

The Maryland Recycling Act of 1988 requires every county and Baltimore City to recycle a minimum percentage of solid waste. Larger jurisdictions must recycle 35%, smaller counties 20%…

Minnesota law requires commercial buildings in the seven-county metro and large cities to provide recycling, and bans certain materials from landfills statewide. Counties must…

Every Mississippi county, working with its cities, must adopt a nonhazardous solid waste management plan that spells out how it will cut waste 25% through source reduction and…

Missouri requires every state department and agency to recycle at least 25% of paper products used or 50% of paper disposed of, whichever is greater, separate plastics, metals and…

Montana sets no recycling mandate for households or businesses. Under Mont. Code Ann. § 75-10-805, only state agencies, the legislature, and the university system must prepare…

Nebraska's Integrated Solid Waste Management Act sets statewide waste-reduction goals, bans certain materials from landfills, and requires permitted disposal. Local recycling programs…

Nevada sets a statewide target of recycling at least 25 percent of municipal solid waste. The State Environmental Commission writes the rules requiring source separation of recyclables…

RSA 149-M establishes a statewide solid waste management hierarchy prioritizing source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting before disposal. The state has set a 40% diversion…

The New Jersey Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act requires every household and business in the state to source-separate at least three designated recyclables from solid…

New Mexico's Recycling and Illegal Dumping Act sets a statewide recycling goal and requires counties to plan disposal capacity, while leaving curbside recycling specifics to local…

New York's Solid Waste Management Act requires every municipality to adopt source separation recycling rules and bans certain recyclables from disposal statewide.

North Carolina prohibits disposal of specific recyclable materials in landfills statewide under G.S. 130A-309.10, applying uniformly to all residents, businesses, and waste haulers.

North Dakota bars landfilling four waste streams outright: lead-acid batteries, used motor oil, wind turbine blades, and major appliances must go to resource recovery, not the dump…

Ohio has no statute forcing residents to recycle, but Revised Code 3734.53 requires every county's solid waste management district to run recycling and waste-reduction programs meeting…

Oklahoma charges a statewide used tire recycling fee on every tire sold or registered, $2.90 for a standard automobile tire, collected by tire dealers and motor license agents under…

Oregon's Recycling Modernization Act (SB 582, 2021) establishes a uniform statewide collection list and shifts recycling costs to producers through extended producer responsibility…

Pennsylvania's Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act of 1988 (Act 101) mandates curbside recycling in municipalities over 10,000 residents and requires statewide…

Rhode Island requires statewide source separation of recyclables under RIGL 23-18.9. Residents and businesses must separate designated materials; the Resource Recovery Corporation sets…

The South Carolina Solid Waste Policy and Management Act (Title 44 Chapter 96) bans certain materials from landfills statewide and sets a 40% recycling goal. Lead-acid batteries, used…

Tennessee sets a statewide goal to cut per-capita municipal solid waste sent to landfills and incinerators by 25 percent, enforced against each of the state's municipal solid waste…

Texas Health and Safety Code Section 361.425 orders every county, municipality, school district, university, and state agency to run a recycling program that separates and collects at…

In Utah, throwing a lead acid battery in the trash is illegal. Utah Code 19-6-602 bans disposing of any lead acid battery in a landfill; every battery must go to a retailer…

Vermont's Universal Recycling Law (Act 148, codified at 10 V.S.A. ยง 6605k) bans recyclables, leaf and yard debris, clean wood, and food scraps from landfill disposal statewide. Every…

Virginia requires each solid waste planning unit to maintain a minimum 25 percent recycling rate. A reduced 15 percent rate applies to units with a population density under 100 persons…

Washington requires curbside recycling availability in urban areas under RCW 70A.205 and mandates organics collection for businesses under RCW 70A.205.545. Counties and cities must…

West Virginia Code Chapter 22 Article 15A Section 18 establishes statewide recycling goals and authorizes the Recycling Assistance Program, with mandatory municipal recycling for…

Wisconsin universally bans designated recyclable materials from landfills and incinerators under Wis. Stat. § 287.07 and requires every responsible unit to operate an effective…

Wyoming Statutes Title 35, Chapter 11, Article 5 establishes universal solid waste rules. Lead-acid batteries are banned from landfill disposal statewide and must be recycled…