Hackensack, NJ Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Article II of Chapter 93, Collection and Recycling (adopted 10-21-1974 by Ord. No. 24-74 and amended in its entirety 5-3-1999 by Ord. No. 20-99), makes recycling mandatory citywide. Section 93-9A requires all persons and occupants to separate recyclable materials, as defined in Section 93-3, from their garbage, refuse and trash. Properties served by the City's own collection have those materials picked up under the article; properties using a private collector must transport recyclables to an approved recycling center themselves or arrange collection by a licensed scavenger.

Section 93-3 defines 'recyclable materials' to include newspapers, corrugated cardboard, commingled glass, tin, aluminum and Type 1 and 2 plastic bottles, junk mail and other mixed paper, electronic waste such as TVs and small appliances, grass clippings, motor oil, leaves and both dry-cell and small sealed lead-acid batteries. Section 93-7B(9) requires that glass bottles, aluminum cans, tin cans and plastic bottles be placed in a suitable rigid receptacle, not a plastic or paper bag, though they need not be separated from one another within that receptacle.

Recyclables must be set out only on the collection date the Division of Sanitation establishes and kept apart from other refuse; Section 93-7E(2) makes it unlawful to commingle recyclables with other trash, and the City will not collect any refuse batch that contains recyclable material mixed in.