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

Effingham County's recycling program runs through Chapter 66 of the county code, enforced by Public Works and Development Services code enforcement staff. Sec. 66-37(l) protects the integrity of the recycling stream at county disposal sites: no one may deposit waste, water or litter of any kind into a county-owned or contracted cart, container, dumpster or receptacle designated for recyclable materials. Only materials the Board of Commissioners or its designee has approved may go into those containers, and the board is authorized to require that recyclables be separated by type before collection.

The code defines 'recyclable materials' as anything the board designates as recyclable that would otherwise be waste (Sec. 66-31), leaving the accepted-materials list to the board rather than fixing it permanently in the ordinance. Sec. 66-32(f) separately lets the board adopt further rules governing how recyclable materials are collected countywide. For residential units, Article III of Chapter 66 layers on a 'residential recovered materials collection service': households can request that a residential service provider collect recovered materials in a storage container placed at the designated collection location, with the provider required to deliver those materials to an authorized processing or recycling facility.

Contaminating a recycling container with regular household waste, water or litter, or dumping without the property owner's authorization, are both treated the same as any other Chapter 66 waste violation.