Albany, OR Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

The City Council of Albany, Oregon, wrote its recycling mandate into the solid waste franchise chapter of the Albany Municipal Code, not into a stand-alone recycling ordinance. Section 3.28.070(2) obligates the franchisee, Albany-Lebanon Sanitation, Inc., to provide the level of recycling and reuse service required by ORS 459.165 through ORS 459.200, and it promises that the City will support and assist the franchisee in carrying that out. Under § 3.28.040 the Council found that an integrated franchise for collecting recyclables and solid wastes is necessary to create the opportunity to recycle, and it continued the exclusive franchise on that basis.

The concrete duties sit in paragraphs (a) through (c). The franchisee operates a recycling depot within the City as a public facility where residents take recyclable materials. Every single-family residential dwelling unit within the City gets collection of recyclable materials at least once a week. Commercial, industrial, institutional, governmental and multi-family residential sources get collection at least monthly or as otherwise directed. Paragraph (d) adds notice and outreach duties: the franchisee gives notice to potential and actual recycling and reuse sources and sponsors educational and promotional activities to increase public participation. Paragraph (e) lets the City Council direct additional recycling or reuse service when it finds that State laws or regulations, or a recycling or reuse plan the Council adopted, now require it.

The Council, not the hauler, decides which materials count. The code says the materials are periodically determined by the City Council, and on the effective date of the franchise the single-family list was properly cleaned and prepared newspapers, cardboard, tinned cans, glass separated by colors, aluminum and waste oil.

Cost runs through rates. Section 3.28.070(3)(a) treats the net cost of required or permitted recycling and reuse, together with the notice, education and promotion, as a cost of doing business repaid to the franchisee through the rate base. Section 3.28.070(3)(c) lets the franchisee impose reasonable requirements on people participating in source separation programs to protect quality for processing and marketing, but those requirements must be filed with and approved by the City Manager before they take effect.