Fort Collins, CO Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

City Code § 12-22 lists three categories of "required recycling" that Fort Collins' Environmental Services Department enforces citywide. Subsection (a) bars electronic equipment, TVs, computers, and similar devices, from refuse containers and from burial anywhere on private or public property; it must be stored and presented to a licensed solid waste collector for recycling under § 15-416(b) or delivered straight to a qualified electronics recycling facility. Subsection (b) does the same for recyclable cardboard: corrugated boxes with three or more layers of kraft paper cannot go into a solid waste container, and must instead move through a collector's recycling service under § 15-413(c) or go directly to a facility equipped for cardboard.

Subsection (c) reaches construction sites: once the Larimer County construction and demolition waste processing facility opens, mixed C&D materials free of asbestos and lead paint from new building construction, remodels, and additions covered by the amended building codes at City Code §§ 5-27 and 5-30 must go to that facility for processing, recycling, and disposal for a ten-year window; separated C&D materials are exempt and may go to any alternative recycling facility named in the project's building-official-approved waste management plan. Subsection (d) puts the duty on both owners and occupants of a premises to keep required-to-be-recycled materials out of any bag or container set out for solid waste pickup, and extends that duty to holders of a City building permit disposing of mixed C&D debris.

The rule sits inside Chapter 12's refuse and rubbish article, distinct from the collector-facing service standards in Chapter 15, Article XV, so it binds residents and contractors directly rather than just the licensed haulers.