Dothan, AL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Dothan's recycling program is authorized by Article VIII of Chapter 82, adopted by the board of commissioners under Ordinance No. 2007-117. Section 82-121 states the program's purpose: reducing the residential solid waste stream, cutting the cost of disposal, conserving landfill space at the city's own facility, and conserving natural resources. Section 82-122 hands day-to-day control to the city manager, who must design the program to comply with state law requirements and guidelines and who may set the specific operating rules, including which materials count as recyclable, how often crews collect them, which day of the week collection happens, how residents must separate items, and any other provision reasonably needed to run the program.

Because the ordinance delegates those operational details to the city manager rather than spelling them out in the code itself, residents look to city-published collection schedules and container instructions for the day-to-day mechanics, while the legal backbone, and the requirement that the program serve the stated waste-reduction and landfill-conservation purpose, sits in §§ 82-121 and 82-122. The program sits alongside the city's separately billed residential refuse service in the same chapter, sharing the same enforcement structure and disposal fee schedule set earlier in Chapter 82 for the city landfill.

Participation itself is addressed in the next section of the article, § 82-123, which is voluntary rather than mandatory, but the city manager's authority to structure and require compliance with programmatic rules, once set, flows from § 82-122.