Orem, UT Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Orem City Code Section 22-14-23, Recycling Trailers/Containers, requires anyone locating a trailer or container for collecting recyclable materials, in any zone in the City, to first obtain approval from the Development Review Committee (DRC). The DRC's review is not a rubber stamp: the code specifically bars it from approving a location that would occupy required parking stalls or required landscaped area, the two features most commonly sacrificed when a property squeezes in a recycling bin, and it must also weigh safety hazards the container could create for motorists and pedestrians navigating the site.

A second, narrower restriction controls what actually goes in the container once it is sited: trailers and containers for recyclable materials can only collect the specific materials that the City's Recycling Advisory Commission has approved, so an operator cannot simply advertise open collection of any material it chooses. Together the two rules mean a shopping center, church parking lot, or school that wants to host a public recycling drop-off point, the kind used for cardboard, paper, or scrap metal collection drives, has to clear a siting review before installation and stay within the Commission's approved material list afterward, rather than treating the container as an accessory use that needs no City input at all.