Manchester, CT Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Section 273-8 of Chapter 273, Solid Waste, adopted by the Board of Directors on October 13, 2009, targets scavenging: taking recyclables that a resident has already placed in a blue Town-issued recycling container or set at the curbside for collection. The section reserves that material for the Town's own solid waste contractor or the property owner who put it out, and prohibits removal by anyone else, whether a passerby, a competing hauler or a scrap collector. The recycling container itself is defined in § 273-2 as "a Town-issued, wheeled blue plastic cart that is provided for the specific purpose of storing those household recyclables, designated in the rules and regulations established pursuant to § 273-6 of this chapter, generated by residential activities for collection by the Town." Section 273-6 gives the Director of Public Works authority to write the rules and regulations covering separation, collection, removal, storage, hauling and disposition of recyclables and the chapter's other waste categories, which is where the specific list of recyclable materials and any collection-day details actually live.

Because § 273-8 treats scavenging as a standalone infraction rather than folding it into the general dumping or placement violations in §§ 273-3 through 273-5, it carries its own separately stated penalty rather than the warning-then-fine structure that applies to container placement violations under § 273-4F.