Decatur, AL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Section 19-43 of the Decatur City Code is the city's recycling rule. It is a fee-and-acceptance provision for the recycling facility at the Decatur Morgan County Landfill, adopted by Ordinance No. 21-4471 on August 16, 2021, with the fee effective October 1, 2021. The code states its purpose: to recover a portion of the cost of operating the recycling facility. Recycling loads under five hundred pounds carry no charge. Loads of five hundred pounds and more are charged $26.00 per ton, which sits below the $29.00 per ton landfill disposal rate in § 19-38(1).

Subsection (a) defines the terms. Recyclable materials are those capable of being recycled, whether or not they have been diverted from the solid waste stream. Recycling is any process by which materials are collected, separated, stored, recovered or processed and reused, and it excludes use as a fuel or any use that constitutes disposal. A responsible party is the individual or entity responsible for a generator's management of solid waste or recycling at a commercial facility, business, nonresidential property or special event.

Subsection (c) gives the landfill director or a designee discretion over whether recyclable materials are authorized to be received and processed. It also warns that materials can be rejected at times when consequences beyond the control of the city and its personnel prevent processing at the facility. The code prints no list of accepted items and no curbside sorting requirement, so acceptance is an administrative call at the scale house.

The landfill sits on Highway 20 West at the Morgan County and Lawrence County line, per § 19-42. Account billing follows § 19-41: monthly account customers are billed monthly, with 12 percent annual interest on delinquent charges and a bar from entering until paid, while others pay cash before disposal.