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

Sec. 16-90 defines 'recyclable materials' broadly to include newspapers, aluminum, steel, electronics, white goods (appliances), plastic, and cardboard placed at curbside, on city right-of-way, or in a city-designated recycling bin or area. Once set out that way, Sec. 16-111 transfers ownership of the material to the city itself, with one narrow carve-out: the person who put the items out can still retrieve them from their own container at curbside or right-of-way, or from material placed for trash pickup at their own residence. That ownership rule backs up Sec.

16-112's anti-scavenging prohibition, which makes it unlawful for anyone other than the city or its authorized recycling contractor to remove curbside or bin-placed recyclables, and treats every separate location and every separate day of a continuing violation as its own distinct offense, so a repeat scavenger can face multiple counts rather than one. A related section, Sec. 16-113, separately criminalizes burning, breaking, destroying, scattering, or salvaging recyclable material once it's been placed for pickup. Recycling bins follow the same curbside timing as garbage carts: they must be out before 6:00 a.m. on collection day and off the curb within 24 hours of servicing under Sec.

16-95. Unlike garbage service, the code does not make recycling participation itself mandatory; these sections instead protect whatever material a resident chooses to put out.