Norwalk, CT Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 94-3A requires the Director of Operations and Public Works to adopt rules implementing Public Act No. 87-544, Connecticut's Act Mandating Recycling in Municipalities and Concerning Source Reduction Planning. On top of whatever that state law already requires, the Director can add corrugated cardboard, glass and metal food containers, newspapers, office paper, scrap metal, storage batteries, waste oil, yard waste, HDPE plastic containers (jugs and jars), PET beverage containers covering plastics No. 1 through No. 7, dry-cell batteries and scrap tires to Norwalk's mandatory recycling list.

Recyclable waste under Section 94-2 is defined broadly to include anything the state commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection designates for mandatory recycling, anything the Director separately designates, and all yard waste. The requirement to recycle sits alongside the acceptable-solid-waste and bulky-waste categories that make up the chapter's overall solid waste definition, and the Director administers all three under the same Chapter 94 licensing and enforcement framework that covers collectors, the Transfer Station and disposal fees (Sections 94-4, 94-10). Because the designated list can grow at the Director's discretion, residents and businesses need to check current postings at the Department of Operations and Public Works rather than assume last year's list still applies.