Champaign, IL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 15-57(a) puts the recycling mandate on the hauler, not the homeowner: any person providing commercial hauling service to a free-standing residential structure of four or fewer dwelling units must supply three specific things. First, curbside pickup of co-mingled recyclable materials, and the Code lists the accepted stream by name: corrugated cardboard, boxboard, beverage carrier stock, magazines, catalogs, newspaper and inserts, telephone directories, paperback books, residential mixed paper, tin and bi-metal food and beverage cans, empty aerosol cans, aluminum cans, foil and trays, food and beverage glass containers, and plastics labeled #1 through #7 other than Styrofoam.

Second, that pickup must be source-separated from trash and offered at least once a week. Third, the hauler cannot charge extra for it: recycling service must come at no additional cost, cannot be separately priced, and recyclables cannot be counted toward the per-container cost of regular trash service. The definitions in Section 15-1 tie the mandate to licensing: a commercial hauler is anyone who charges a fee to collect and transport waste or recyclables to a site other than where the waste sits, and Section 15-52 already bars collecting municipal waste, landscape waste, or recyclables for a fee without a City hauling license.

That license, in turn, is conditioned on complying with Section 15-57 as part of the hauler's Chapter 15 obligations, and the Public Works Director enforces the chapter under Section 15-2, with violations subject to the Section 1-21 general penalty.