Gary, IN Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Gary Municipal Code § 10-31, adopted by Ordinance No. 7702 on March 15, 2005, ties solid-waste recycling planning directly to the city's licensing system rather than making it a stand-alone curbside mandate: every applicant for a license or permit, and every applicant renewing one, must describe in writing how reduction, reuse and recycling will cut the wastestream generated by the licensed activity. Because the requirement is folded into Chapter 10's general licensing article, it applies on top of the baseline general business license process in § 10-25, which requires any business established in the city to file with the controller's office within 30 calendar days and pay the fee set in chapter 20 (a $125.00 one-time application fee, with an annual renewal fee also fixed by chapter 20).

The controller can waive the one-time fee only for businesses already required by other ordinance to hold an annual license. The recycling-plan article carries no separate penalty clause of its own, so a business that files a license or renewal application without the required waste-management plan is treated the same as any other incomplete or noncompliant licensing submission under this Code, exposing the applicant to the city's general penalty provision, § 1-7, and to the mayor's power under § 10-30 to withhold, suspend, or revoke the underlying license.