Portsmouth, VA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 16-32(a) makes it unlawful, in any area with automated refuse and recycling collection, to set garbage or trash out unless it sits in an approved container furnished by the city. Section 16-1 defines an approved container as a city-issued receptacle for solid waste or recyclables used in the automated program, and automated refuse collection as service to residences equipped with a city-furnished 95-gallon automated collection container. Under section 16-32(c), the director decides the type of container required in each area. The director is the director of public works or an authorized representative.

Timing sits in section 16-36(b). Residents place the container out any time after 5:00 p.m. the day before collection and by 7:00 a.m. on collection day, or as the director specifies. After the truck passes, the receptacle comes off the curb as soon as possible and goes beside or behind the dwelling, or to a site the director accepts. It must be gone by the evening of collection day. Yard waste in clear plastic bags goes out at the same time as the automated container. Section 16-36(a) sets residential garbage and household trash collection at one time each week unless the city manager or a designee designates otherwise.

Section 16-1 fixes what counts as a recyclable: newspapers, cardboard, junk mail, catalogs and papers; clear glass bottles and jars; plastic containers #1 and #2; aluminum cans, aluminum foil and steel or tin food cans. Section 16-33(a) allows nothing but garbage, trash or recyclables in the approved containers and flatly prohibits hazardous waste. Section 16-34 adds preparation rules: paper goes in a compliant receptacle or refuse bag or is securely bundled so it cannot blow about the street, and empty corrugated cartons and pasteboard boxes are flattened and tied with strong, stout cord in bundles of no more than 25 pounds. The sections quoted here set no separate recycling pickup day and no every-other-week rhythm.