Cobb County, GA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Cobb County Code of Ordinances Section 102-65(a) requires every collector permitted to handle residential solid waste in the unincorporated county to offer recyclable-materials pickup on a regular monthly basis to residential customers, and to actually provide that service to any customer who enrolls. The ordinance sets a floor, not a ceiling, on what must be accepted: cardboard, PET and HDPE plastics, hard-to-recycle plastics currently handled through the Hefty ReNew program (subject to change), newspaper, and aluminum. Under subsection (b), a collector must furnish an appropriate container or receptacle to any customer who opts into the service, and may charge a fee for that container.

Subsection (c) bars collectors from routing recyclables collected under this program to a landfill in order to circumvent the proper recycling material flow, though an exemption applies if material is later rejected as contaminated by the material recovery facility after curbside pickup separate from municipal solid waste. Collectors are also barred from dropping recyclables collected under this section at a Cobb County Residential Drop-Off Center. Placement rules under Section 102-69(3) require customers to set recyclables out loose, not bagged, inside the collection container, except hard-to-recycle items, which go in an approved bag before being placed in the container.

Section 102-66 separately makes it unlawful for anyone other than the material's owner to remove recovered materials once they have been separated from solid waste and placed at a designated collection spot, a protection against scavenging that undercuts a hauler's recycling stream. Private recyclers, authorized recycling agents and charitable recycling groups are exempt from this chapter under Section 102-68(b). Subsection (d) ties enforcement to Section 102-14, which lets the sustainability, waste and beautification department cite offenders to magistrate court.