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

Section 94-3B requires every generator, or their agent, to keep recyclable waste separated from acceptable solid waste, package it as the Director of Operations and Public Works prescribes, and place it at the curb on the schedule the Director sets for the property's taxing district, for pickup by the City, a City contractor, or the owner's own private collector. Material set out for City collection has to be in City-supplied recycling containers; anything that does not meet those packaging or container rules can be refused right at the curb by any collector working in Norwalk, and the same load can be turned away again if it shows up at the Transfer Station.

Section 94-3D then protects that curbside material once it is out: no one except the person who generated the recyclables, or their agent, may pick them up, remove them, destroy them or otherwise interfere with them, which bars scavengers and unauthorized collectors from working a Norwalk recycling route. These handling rules sit on top of the separate mandatory-recycling list in Section 94-3A, so a resident can be in violation both for failing to separate designated materials and for setting them out in the wrong container or at the wrong time.

Because yard waste also counts as recyclable waste under the chapter's definitions, the same separation and curb-placement rules that apply to bottles and cardboard extend to bundled brush and bagged leaves collected on the regular recycling route.