Marion, OH Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

The recycling mandate in § 943.04(B) runs to the city, not the resident: the Safety/Service Director shall provide for collection of the named materials set out for the purpose of recycling. They are newspapers, glass bottles and jars, aluminum, plastic containers, tin and ferrous cans, corrugated cardboard and brown paper bags. Service reaches all dwelling units within the service area whose waste materials are not collected by mechanical container, the same footprint as regular refuse collection under subsection (A).

Collection is on a regularly scheduled basis as established by the Safety/Service Director, and the ordinance gives the Director the power to add or delete items from the list as it becomes appropriate or beneficial. Residents follow the Director's current list rather than a fixed one in the code.

The definition of recyclable materials in § 943.01 is wider than the § 943.04(B) pickup list. It adds extra materials (including insets), mixed paper and household dry-cell batteries, with no wet-cell batteries, plus other solid waste materials added upon agreement, and only when those materials have been diverted from the remaining solid waste stream or removed before entering it. Recycling itself is defined as any process by which solid waste is collected, separated or processed and reused or returned to use as raw materials or products.

The code keeps recyclables apart from garbage: the definitions of domestic refuse and of rubbish both exclude recyclable materials. The program is part of the city's sanitation service, and the Services definition in § 943.01 ties an implied contract to the municipality offering sanitation or recycling services to a domestic residence. Subscribers who meet the age, retirement or disability criteria in § 943.19 are charged a reduced rate of 50% of the resident subscriber charges.