Taunton, MA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

City Code § 420-3, added August 29, 1995, gives the Commissioner of Public Works authority, with the approval of the Municipal Council Committee on Solid Waste, to adopt written rules and regulations governing the preparation, sorting and collection of solid waste, recyclables, compostables and related materials citywide. This is the legal basis for Taunton's curbside recycling program requirements: rather than fixing every sorting detail in the Code itself, the ordinance delegates rulemaking to the Commissioner subject to Council committee sign-off. Section 420-4, added February 21, 2012, and amended June 19, 2012, then sets the two core curbside mandates that flow from that authority: households must bag solid waste in City-approved bags and place recyclables only in City-provided bins.

Subsection C of § 420-4 reinforces the Commissioner's role by separately authorizing the Commissioner of Public Works to establish and administer the policies and procedures needed to carry out the curbside collection program on an ongoing basis, distinct from the original rulemaking grant in § 420-3. Collection itself is carried out under contracts the Solid Waste Committee is authorized to bid out and the Municipal Council to award, per § 420-1. Chapter 420 sits under the general reference cross-links to property maintenance (Ch. 350) and junk/secondhand articles (Ch. 287) provisions elsewhere in the Code.