Bloomington, IN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 6.04.040(a) provides that recycling collection comes automatically with solid waste collection and runs every week on the customer's assigned collection day, the same day as trash pickup. Subsection (b) requires recyclables to be placed loosely in the cart, never bagged, and bars putting solid waste in the recycling cart at all; the sanitation division will not collect a cart that violates either rule, and the owner or occupant faces the fines set out in § 6.04.100 (a flat $50 per notice of violation for anything other than the cart-removal rule in § 6.04.110, which is $25, with each day a violation continues counting as a separate violation).

Residents pick a sixty-four or ninety-six gallon recycling cart based on need, and the cart's lid must be fully flush and closed, facing the street, or the load will not be picked up; an overfilled cart whose lid will not close counts as not closed (§ 6.04.040(c)). The department of public works, with board of public works approval, publishes an annual list of which paper, metal, glass and plastic items qualify as recyclable, since that list shifts with the recycling market, and all qualifying paper must be clean and dry while metal, glass and plastic containers must be rinsed and have their lids removed before being set out (§ 6.04.040(d)). Recycling carts are supplied and maintained by the City of Bloomington and billed on the same monthly City of Bloomington Utilities statement as trash service (§ 6.04.090).