Lawrence, KS Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 9-502 gives the city the right to collect permitted recyclable materials from single-family and multifamily dwellings citywide and bars anyone else from running a residential recycling collection service without a city license or formal agreement; the city may also contract with a material recovery facility (MRF) to process what it collects. Section 9-505 sets the actual service for single-family customers: single stream collection, meaning all permitted materials go into one cart rather than being sorted at the curb, with the recycling collection point next to the household's regular trash collection point, and pickup running once every other week on a schedule spelled out in the city's residential recycling collection service rules and regulations.

Section 9-506 extends a comparable single stream service to multifamily customers, matched to however their solid waste is already collected. Critically, § 9-504 makes participation voluntary: a resident may decline to recycle, or may haul and recycle materials on their own, without being forced to use the city cart. That opt-out does not touch the bill, though: § 9-504 expressly says self-haulers are not relieved of the monthly residential solid waste charge, which under § 9-510 already bundles in the recycling service charge for every dwelling unit.