Fauquier County, VA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Fauquier County Code § 10-1 defines "recyclable material" as any material that retains useful properties reclaimable after the production or consumption process, and a "recycling center" as a facility for collecting, separating or recycling those materials. The Department of Environmental Services administers the county's recycling program under § 10-2(b), and the director is authorized to promulgate department operating procedures covering the program's administration, including the sole authority to charge anyone who collects recyclables from a county collection site or the landfill the current market price for those commodities, plus any delivery and container fees.

That same subsection lets the director bar disposal of unacceptable solid waste at collection sites or the landfill. Once material, recyclable or not, is dropped at a county disposal site under § 10-10(b), it becomes the property of Fauquier County; a resident or hauler cannot come back later and reclaim recyclables set out at a drop-off site or landfill recycling area. Collection sites remain limited to county residents disposing of ordinary household-generated material under § 10-10(a), so a commercial recycling hauler must instead work through the permitted-collector system in §§ 10-3 through 10-7, obtaining a solid waste permit and business license before hauling recyclables for compensation.

The Board of Supervisors separately sets the per-ton gate rate charged at the landfill under § 10-2(c), and any change to that fee schedule must go through the public notice process required by § 2-5.2 of the Code.