Waukegan, IL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Requirements (2026)

Sec. 10-1 of the Waukegan City Code defines 'recyclable commodities' as plastic, glass, paper, and metal cans, including tin, bi-metal, and ferrous metal, collected by the city or its contractor through the city's curbside recycling program, and it defines the 'recycling bin' as the container the city purchases and distributes to residents for that purpose. Sec. 10-4(a) puts that definition into practice: the city or its contractor supplies each residential unit with one 18-gallon recycling bin alongside the standard 65- or 95-gallon garbage cart, and if a resident's issued container becomes unusable, the public works department will inspect it and, at its sole discretion, replace it at no charge.

00 for it. Sec. 10-4(b)(3) states that recyclable commodities 'may be placed' in the 18-gallon bin, permissive wording that makes participation in the curbside program a choice rather than a mandate; nothing in chapter 10 requires a resident to sort recyclables out of the regular garbage stream. The recycling bin follows the same curb-line placement and removal timing as the garbage cart under Sec. the evening before collection, back in by the evening of collection day.