New Hanover County, NC Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Sec. 44-43 lists recyclable collection as one of the normal residential services provided to every premises on the mandatory collection roll: the county issues each customer a recycling bin of at least 18 gallons and services it once a week on a regular schedule, alongside the weekly 90-gallon refuse cart described in the same section. The list of what counts as recyclable is set by the county itself, since Sec. 44-43(2) states that recyclable materials shall be identified and advertised by the county rather than fixed permanently in the ordinance text.

Once bins are set out, Sec. 44-51 protects the material inside them: it is unlawful for any unauthorized person to scavenge, sort, pick through or remove recyclables, trash or yard waste that has been prepared and set out for collection, and only the county or its franchisee may collect recyclables placed for pickup under this chapter. Article III's companion handling rules reinforce the same recycling stream at the disposal end: Sec. 4 bars recyclable rigid plastic containers from the lined cells of the county landfill and imposes a 100 percent tipping-fee surcharge on any load of unseparated solid waste that is more than five percent rigid plastic containers by volume, and Sec.

5 applies the same landfill ban and surcharge structure to oyster shells, aluminum cans and deposit beverage containers. Together these sections push both haulers and generators toward keeping recyclables out of the regular trash stream rather than mandating that an individual resident personally sort every item.