Gaston County, NC Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Because Gaston County does not operate a curbside recycling truck route for the unincorporated area, its recycling program is built around a network of county-owned solid waste/recycling centers open to residents at posted hours. Section 7-5(b) bars any deposit outside operational hours and bars leaving waste or recyclables outside the site during off hours, which is what generates the pile-of-trash-at-a-locked-gate complaints the sheriff's office fields overnight. Section 7-5(c) restricts the centers to residential customers only: commercial, industrial and institutional loads are turned away, and anyone in the business of solid waste collection cannot use a county center to offload a route.

Section 7-5(d) makes scavenging a violation, since no one may remove any item from a container without authorization from county personnel, a rule aimed at the recyclable-metal pickers who used to work the cardboard and aluminum bins. Access runs through a card-based fee system the board of commissioners adopts and can amend, with the schedule filed with the clerk to the board, the public works director and the county engineer per section 7-5(e); section 7-5(f) separately bans any cash exchange at the sites, so an attendant cannot take a cash payment on the spot.

Chapter 7 also sets the recyclables the centers will take without a landfill ticket: white goods, fluorescent tubes, lead-acid batteries, aluminum cans and corrugated cardboard are called out under section 7-4(b) as items that may bypass general disposal restrictions and go straight to the recycling center. Residents of Gastonia, Belmont, Mount Holly, Cherryville, Dallas, Stanley or Bessemer City fall under their own city's separate collection contract, not this county system.