Recyclables are banned from the trash across Hampshire County by the MassDEP waste ban at 310 CMR 19.017. Glass, metal, and plastic containers, paper, cardboard, and leaf and yard waste must be separated and diverted, not landfilled or burned.
Recycling is mandatory statewide through the disposal ban, so it applies uniformly across every Hampshire County community. Under 310 CMR 19.017, glass, metal, and plastic containers, paper including cardboard, single-resin plastics, leaf and yard waste, and lead-acid batteries are restricted materials that may not be disposed of as trash. Since November 1, 2022, the commercial and institutional food-waste (organics) ban applies to generators of one-half ton or more per week, down from one ton. Northampton, Easthampton, and South Hadley collect single-stream recycling curbside; Amherst residents recycle through their hauler; Belchertown and Ware take recycling at the transfer station. Yard waste is collected seasonally.
Mixing recyclables or yard waste into trash violates the state ban. Haulers can refuse contaminated carts, and MassDEP enforces the disposal restriction at the receiving facility rather than the household level.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Hampshire County, MA
No Hampshire County or state law limits holiday lights, inflatables, or yard displays. Towns rarely regulate seasonal decorations, and where a bylaw touches ...
Hampshire County, MA
No Hampshire County rule governs garage-sale signs; towns handle them through local sign bylaws. A sign on your own lawn is generally fine, but one staked in...
Hampshire County, MA
Towns, not Hampshire County, regulate signs through zoning bylaws under MGL c.40A. Since Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015), a bylaw must stay content-neutral: N...
Hampshire County, MA
Rental registration is a town power, not a county one, and Hampshire County has no government. Amherst requires every landlord to hold an annual rental permi...
Hampshire County, MA
Massachusetts has no just-cause eviction law, and no Hampshire County town can add one. But the state is strongly tenant-protective: a security deposit is ca...
Hampshire County, MA
Rent control is illegal in every Hampshire County community. Massachusetts voters banned it statewide in 1994, now MGL c.40P §4: no city or town may enact, m...
See how Hampshire County's recycling requirements rules stack up against other locations.
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