Ames, IA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Sec. 10.27 opens by stating the program's purpose: to provide for the orderly and economical separation and collection of recyclable materials from residential properties, divert material from the landfill, cut the need for new raw materials, and meet waste-reduction goals the city and the state of Iowa have both identified. Subsection (2) makes the service mandatory rather than optional for the properties it covers: the city collects recycling from all single-family residences and from each unit of a multi-family property containing no more than four units, and it may extend the service to other properties on its own regulations and schedules.

Subsection (3) ties the program to Ames' fee structure, billing the cost to the party responsible for each property under the rate set in Appendix F of the Municipal Code. A single-family residence or a unit in a smaller multi-family building can elect not to receive a physical recycling receptacle, but opting out of the cart does not excuse two obligations the code spells out by name: keeping yard waste, recyclable materials and garbage or refuse from being mixed together, as Sec. 10.7 separately requires, and paying the recycling service fee regardless of whether a cart sits at the curb.

Subsection (4) leaves room for private recycling arrangements alongside the city program, allowing the city to contract out collection or letting private haulers serve multi-family buildings with more than four units, and commercial or industrial properties, outside the residential curbside system altogether.