Loveland, CO Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Section 7.16.060(A) requires that, where curbside recycling service is offered to residential customers, it be provided at least once every two weeks and on the same day as the customer's solid waste collection. Subsection B requires multifamily and commercial recycling pickups often enough to prevent container overflow, and Subsection C requires collectors to notify new customers in writing about recycling availability, the designated materials under § 7.16.080, and the collector's own preparation rules under § 7.16.050(1).

Section 7.16.050 lets each licensed collector set reasonable, industry-accepted rules for how customers prepare recyclables, requires collectors to make household recycling containers available to curbside customers, and bars a collector from dumping properly prepared, set-out recyclables anywhere except a lawfully operating recycling facility; once Larimer County's clean material recovery facility opens, all comingled single-stream recyclables must go there. Ownership of curbside recyclables stays with the customer until the collector picks them up, after which it becomes the collector's property, and no one else may take physical possession. Section 7.16.080 has the city manager designate recyclable materials annually, by November 30, weighing legal requirements, waste-stream reduction potential, market availability and price, collection feasibility, safety, and contamination risk; collectors must then notify customers of the designated list within 90 days. Operating as a solid waste or recyclables collector at all requires a city license under § 7.16.030, with narrow exemptions for self-hauling residents, charities, landlords passing along a tenant's waste, and contractors handling their own construction or demolition debris.