Fort Smith offers voluntary curbside recycling through the Department of Solid Waste Services. Each residential single-family home through four-plex can receive a recycling cart at no monthly cost; replacement cart prices are $70 for a 65-gallon cart and $90 for a 95-gallon cart. Recyclables must be placed loose in the cart - not bagged - and picked up on the assigned weekly day. Arkansas does not impose a state-law mandatory-recycling requirement on municipalities (unlike Pennsylvania's Act 101); the Arkansas Solid Waste Management Act (A.C.A. Β§8-9-401 et seq.) authorizes but does not mandate local recycling.
Fort Smith's recycling program is voluntary - there is no Arkansas state-law mandate that municipalities run a mandatory curbside recycling program (in contrast to Pennsylvania's Act 101 which forces every municipality over 10,000 to operate one). The Arkansas Solid Waste Management Act (A.C.A. Β§8-9-401 et seq.) authorizes municipalities to operate solid-waste programs including recycling but leaves the design to local discretion. Fort Smith offers each residential customer (single-family through four-plex) a city-issued recycling cart at no monthly cost; the cart is provided by the Department of Solid Waste Services and may be requested through the City website. Replacement carts and additional carts are priced at $70 for a 65-gallon cart and $90 for a 95-gallon cart. Critical operational rule: recyclables must be placed LOOSE in the cart - the City explicitly instructs residents not to bag recyclables. Plastic bags ('film plastic') jam the sorting machinery at the regional materials recovery facility (MRF) and contaminate loads to the point of rejection. Accepted curbside materials typically include: corrugated cardboard (flattened), paperboard (cereal boxes), newspapers and magazines, office paper, #1 PET and #2 HDPE plastic containers (rinsed; caps loose or off), aluminum cans, and steel/tin food cans. Glass is generally not accepted curbside in Fort Smith's commingled program (varies year-to-year based on MRF contract). Contaminants that draw rejected loads include food residue, polystyrene foam (Styrofoam), plastic bags, plastic film, used pizza boxes, and food-contaminated cardboard. Pickup is on the same weekly route as regular trash (every other week in some cities; check fortsmithar.gov for current schedule).
Setting non-recyclables in the recycling cart contaminates the load and may cause the City contractor to reject the cart - the resident pays for the rejected load to be re-routed to landfill, and persistent contamination may result in withdrawal of the recycling cart. Bagging recyclables (plastic film) jams the MRF and is the single most common contamination cause - the City explicitly instructs loose set-out. Persistent non-compliance with cart-presentation rules is a Code violation under Chapter 25, Article VII enforced by Neighborhood Services with progressive notices and ultimately a Criminal Summons after three warnings in a calendar year (misdemeanor; fine generally up to $500 per offense). Selling or scavenging set-out recyclables may be cited as theft of municipal property depending on the contract terms with the MRF.
Fort Smith, AR
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See how Fort Smith's recycling requirements rules stack up against other locations.
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