Reading, PA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Chapter 496, Part 2 requires every person in the City, whether generating waste at a single-family home, a multi-dwelling unit or a nonresidential unit, to source-separate and recycle all 'designated recyclable materials' (§496-204A). The designated list has four categories: single-stream recycling made up of at least three materials chosen from clear and colored glass, aluminum, steel and bimetallic cans, high-grade office paper, newsprint, corrugated paper and plastics; yard waste, added to the list by Ord. No. 98-2021 in December 2021; electronic waste; and tires (§496-204B).

Residents remain free to recycle beyond that list through private programs, but the City's municipal collection will only pick up the designated materials (§496-204D). Section 496-205 places the compliance duty on the property owner or operator: they must ensure the property is either enrolled in a licensed hauler's contract or the City's municipal collection program, and must permanently post the solid waste and recycling rules in each unit in English and Spanish, or supply the same information with the lease. m. on Saturdays, with no Sunday collection (§496-205B(2)), and burning solid waste or recyclables without a PADEP permit is separately prohibited (§496-205C).

Enforcement runs through §496-212: the City's Property Maintenance Division, Public Works, and Police Department can abate a violation and bill the owner, and any aggrieved owner can appeal to the Codes and License Appeals Board within 15 days of the bill.