Fort Collins, CO Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 15-413(a) sets the residential curbside standard: collectors must include recyclable materials pickup at no additional charge, sized at least eighteen gallons and up to two large capacity containers (more than 90 but not more than 99 gallons), and cannot cut a customer's bill if that customer declines recycling. Recycling must run the same day of the week as trash pickup, except in mobile home parks. Collectors offering only the 18-gallon tub must pick up weekly; collectors offering medium or large recycling carts must pick up at least twice a month.

A customer with two large recycling containers can be charged an excess fee, matching the excess trash fee, if recyclables overflow the carts. Subsection (b) sets a parallel standard for multi-family and commercial accounts: minimum recycling service equal to one-third of the customer's combined trash-and-recycling volume, for example a two-cubic-yard recycling container paired with a four-cubic-yard weekly trash container. A commercial or multi-family customer can seek a variance from the Director of the City's Environmental Services Department for space constraints, self-hauling, use of a separate licensed recycler, low generation, or an unsafe collection location; an approved variance lasts five years.

Every collector must notify customers in writing by December 31 each year of recycling options, container choices, and rates, and must keep records the City can inspect. The requirement runs alongside the collector license under § 15-417, so noncompliance is a licensing matter, not simply a customer complaint.