Vestavia Hills, AL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Vestavia Hills builds recycling into the same residential sanitation article that governs garbage and trash, Sec. 14-31 of the Code of Ordinances. Subsection (9) obligates the city's sanitation contractor to collect recyclables once per week from each residential unit within the city limits, at no additional cost to the city, meaning residents pay nothing extra for the service beyond their regular sanitation charge. The contractor, not the homeowner, must supply the containers used for recyclables. The code names the accepted materials specifically: newspaper, aluminum cans, glass, plastic containers and tin cans.

Everything the contractor picks up under this clause must actually be recycled, either directly by the contractor or by an entity the contractor arranges to recycle it, closing off the option of quietly landfilling material collected as recyclable. The recycling duty sits inside the same three-year renewable service contract described in subsection (11), which the city and its hauling contractor can extend under Code of Ala. 1975, § 41-16-51(a)(10) so long as the price and terms stay substantially the same, aside from landfill cost and cost-of-living adjustments tied to the federal Consumer Price Index.

Because recycling is folded into the general residential service article rather than broken out as its own chapter, the enforcement and billing mechanics that apply to garbage and trash under Secs. 14-16 and 14-17, including the sanitary department's discretion to discontinue service, apply here as well.