El Dorado County, CA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Section 8.42.770 protects recyclable materials from the moment they're segregated from regular trash and set out at a designated collection location. It bars anyone other than the owner or the franchised recyclable-materials hauler from tampering with, modifying, or dumping additional waste into those segregated materials. The second sentence goes further: unless a contract says otherwise, no one but the franchised collector or the owner may remove recyclables once they're staged for pickup, closing off informal scavenging of cans, bottles and cardboard left at the curb.

The rule sits alongside the general container-tampering ban in Section 8.42.750, which separately makes it unlawful to tamper with, modify, remove from, or deposit waste in any container not provided for one's own use without the owner's permission, and Section 8.42.510(C), which similarly bars anyone but the generator, franchisee or permittee from removing solid waste or recyclables placed for collection. Together these sections give the County's franchised haulers, who depend on recyclables' resale value to fund the program, exclusive rights to curbside material once it's set out, backed by the County's general nuisance and code-enforcement authority in Chapter 9.02.