Corpus Christi, TX Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

The recycling program under Sec. 21-11 collects from any residence or commercial account already subscribed to city collection service. Recyclables must be placed in the department-issued cart marked with the recycling symbol, and that cart has to sit at least five feet from other solid waste and from any fixed object that would block the collection arm. on the designated day; the empty cart must be pulled back off the collection location by midnight the same day. Carts can't be left in a roadside drainage ditch unless the director allows it for lack of a practical alternative, and whoever places it there can be held liable for any flooding damage it causes.

Accepted materials are newspaper, mixed paper, magazines, clean cardboard, aluminum and tin cans, plastic bottles with the tops removed, and plastics marked Type 1 through 6. Department staff, police, and code enforcement personnel may inspect any cart, and a cart contaminated with garbage, plastic bags, Styrofoam, appliances, clothing, hoses, diapers, yard waste, glass, lightbulbs, PVC pipe, or foil will simply not be emptied. Contamination is tracked over a rolling 24-month window: the first two occurrences draw a written notice and the customer must clean out the cart or pay for a special waste collection; the third adds a special waste collection fee to the customer's utility bill; the fourth results in removal of the cart for a minimum of six months, after which the customer may ask to have it redelivered.

Recyclables set out for collection are city property, and removing them from a cart is a violation of the article that can also be prosecuted as theft under the Texas Penal Code. Customers may opt out of the program entirely at any time and simply will not receive a cart.