San Antonio, TX Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Section 14-12 of the San Antonio Code of Ordinances sets the rules for the blue-cart recycling program that comes with every city-serviced address. Acceptable materials are limited to newspaper, mixed office paper, magazines, corrugated cardboard, kraft paper, aluminum and tin cans, steel aerosol cans, and plastic bottles, tops and containers, plus single-use plastic bags bundled into a soccer-ball-size bundle; everything must go in loose, never bagged, and jars or bottles should be rinsed. At the director's discretion, Solid Waste Management staff inspect carts before collection, and a cart contaminated with refuse, appliances, clothes, dead animals, garden hoses, toys, diapers, grass clippings, bagged leaves or household hazardous waste is skipped rather than emptied.

When that happens the department mails written notice explaining why, and the resident can pull the contaminating material and set the cart out again on the next scheduled day; repeat offenses can trigger a non-compliance contamination fee. Recycling is not compulsory: residents who elect not to participate simply receive no blue cart and get once-per-week refuse collection instead. But a resident removed from the program for repeated contamination is issued an additional brown garbage cart and charged extra monthly fees for a minimum of six months.

Container placement, alley collection and removal timing follow the citywide rules in Section 14-10(a) through (c), and anyone wanting extra recycling capacity must first show they use their existing cart correctly before the department will add another.