Queens County, NY Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

New York City's mandatory recycling program has been in place since the landmark Local Law 19 of 1989. Enforcement and rules sit within DSNY under 16 RCNY Title 16 and related chapters. Residential recycling in Queens requires separating three streams. Paper: clean dry paper, cardboard (flattened), newspapers, mail, magazines, phone books, soft-cover books, and clean paperboard. Placed in clear plastic bags or in a DSNY-approved blue recycling bin. Metal, glass, plastic, and beverage cartons: rigid plastics marked with recycling triangle 1 through 7, metal containers (cans, empty aerosols), glass bottles and jars, and beverage cartons (milk cartons, juice boxes, aseptic). Placed in clear bags or in a blue bin with a green lid. Organics: food scraps, food-soiled paper, leaf and yard waste. Mandatory citywide since October 6, 2024, using the brown DSNY organics bin or the neighborhood smart composting bins. Enforcement fines started April 1, 2025. Non-recyclables that must go in regular trash include: plastic bags (recycle at grocery store take-back), Styrofoam (banned in many uses in NYC but small pieces go in trash), coated paper cups, mirrors, ceramics, plastic toys, and electronics (banned from regular trash entirely under NYS law). Landlord and building owners are responsible for providing adequate recycling capacity for tenants; failure to provide bins is a DSNY violation. Commercial recycling follows different rules under the Commercial Waste Zones program.