Seminole County, FL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)
Key Facts
- Minimum materials
- newspaper, steel/aluminum cans, plastic, glass
- Residential haulers
- mandatory recycling service
- Commercial haulers
- "best efforts" only
- Contaminated bins
- tagged and left uncollected
- Set-out recyclables
- title passes to hauler
- Governing
- Chapter 235, §§235.74-235.76
Summary
Seminole County requires every household with residential collection service to keep recyclables separate from trash under Chapter 235, and requires franchised haulers to collect at minimum newspapers, steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and clear, green, and brown glass at curbside on scheduled pickup days.
(1)Recyclable Materials must be placed in a suitable recycling bin at the usual accessible pick-up location on scheduled days. No Person may co-mingle Recyclable Materials with Yard Trash-Regular or other Solid Waste.... Persons holding Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for Residential Collection Services shall provide recycling services to their Customers, including at a minimum the collection of newspapers, steel cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, glass (clear, green and brown), and such other items designated by resolution to be recyclable.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 23 Update 1 | Land Development Code: Supplement 2).
Full Breakdown
74(b)(1) of the Seminole County Code requires anyone receiving Residential Collection Service from a county-franchised contractor to place Recyclable Materials in a suitable recycling bin at the usual accessible pick-up location on the customer's scheduled collection day, and it is unlawful to co-mingle those materials with Yard Trash-Regular or other Solid Waste. 74(b)(4) lets the contractor leave contaminated recycling bins at curbside, tagged with the reason the load was rejected, rather than collecting it. 75(a) obligates every holder of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for Residential Collection Service to provide recycling service to its customers covering, at minimum, newspapers, steel cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and glass in clear, green, and brown colors, plus any additional materials the Board designates by resolution.
75(c) similarly requires "best efforts" recycling from Construction and Demolition Debris haulers, with the Board authorized to mandate a minimum recycling percentage as a condition of a debris hauler's certificate. 6.
Violations & Fines
Placing recyclables mixed with garbage, or setting them out somewhere other than the designated pick-up spot, can get the container tagged and skipped under Section 235.74(b)(4), and repeat or serious violations of Chapter 235 are enforceable as citations before the Code Enforcement Board or Special Magistrate under Section 235.7, alongside any other civil or criminal remedy the County chooses to pursue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What materials must my recycling hauler collect in Seminole County?
Do commercial businesses have to recycle too?
Can someone else take the recyclables I set out at the curb?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Seminole County
Florida rules heatmap·Compare Seminole County to another location·View the Florida trash & recycling overview
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