Cape Coral, FL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 9-67(b)(2) requires that all recyclable waste in the city be placed in a cart and collected once per week at curbside or the edge of the street, running on the same weekly cycle as garbage, trash and horticultural waste under the same subsection. Recyclable waste is defined at § 9-65(5) to include paper, telephone books, aluminum and other metal cans, glass, bottles, jars, and #1 through #7 plastic that can be processed and reused. Once that material is placed in the city-provided cart at curbside for collection, § 9-74 declares it the property of the City of Cape Coral, and makes it unlawful for any entity, person, firm, corporation, association, government or government agency other than the city to collect or pick it up.

That ownership declaration is what lets the city and its franchise hauler pursue scavengers who work curbside carts ahead of the scheduled truck, since state and local recycling programs depend on the volume the hauler collects to fund the service. Each separate act of taking recyclable material from a city cart is treated as its own violation, so a single early-morning collector working multiple blocks can rack up multiple offenses in one outing. The requirement to use a cart, rather than loose bins or bags, mirrors the receptacle standard applied to garbage and trash elsewhere in § 9-67(b), keeping the weekly curbside system uniform across waste streams.