Tuscaloosa, AL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Tuscaloosa offers recycling but does not mandate it. The Environmental Services Division provides a free recycling bin to residential garbage customers, collected on the same day as garbage; additional bins are free through Tuscaloosa 311. Accepted materials include aluminum cans, corrugated cardboard and paperboard, mixed office paper, newspapers and magazines, plastics #1 and #2, and steel cans (glass accepted at specified locations). Residents without curbside service can use roughly fifteen drop-off trailers around the county, and electronics (computers, monitors, printers, phones, flat-screen TVs) are accepted at the Richard A. Curry Environmental Complex, 3440 Reese Phifer Ave. The code addresses ownership and protection of recyclables rather than mandating participation: Section 16-111 provides that recyclable materials placed at curbside or in the city right-of-way (or in city-designated bins) become the property of the city, except the depositor may retrieve items from their own container. Section 16-112 makes it unlawful for anyone other than the city or its authorized contractor to remove curbside recyclables — each location and each day is a separate offense — and Section 16-113 makes it unlawful to burn, break, destroy, scatter or salvage recyclables set out for collection. No citywide mandatory single-family or multifamily recycling requirement exists in the code.