Barrow County, GA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Subsection (c) of section 78-38 is the county's only dedicated recycling rule, and it works as a contamination ban rather than a mandate to recycle. It sits inside the broader Debris and Waste Control Environmental Ordinance (chapter 78, article II) alongside the general anti-dumping rules in subsections (a) and (b), but it addresses a different problem: someone using a recycling container as a catch-all trash can. The code requires that anything placed in a container specifically designated as a recycling container be properly separated and sorted into categories and deposited only into the container approved for that particular type of recyclable material, meaning glass cannot go in a container set aside for paper, and ordinary household garbage cannot go in either.

Because the rule is framed as a prohibition on improper deposits rather than a participation requirement, it does not obligate residents to recycle, and it does not create a curbside recycling program; Barrow County's collection service in section 78-41(g) is a subscription arrangement with a private contractor, so recycling containers referenced here are most often the drop-off or business and multifamily bins covered by the definitions in section 78-32. Violations are investigated by code enforcement officers under the same section 78-35 process used for the rest of article II.