Putnam County, NY Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Article II of Chapter 205, enacted under New York General Municipal Law § 120-aa, which required municipalities to adopt source-separation laws by September 1, 1992, and Environmental Conservation Law § 27-0107, sets the county's baseline recycling framework. Section 205-9 states the Legislature's finding that discarding recyclable material worsens the solid waste disposal crisis and directs source separation to the maximum extent possible by every household, business, and institution in the county. Implementation is delegated locally: each town and village must submit a plan to the Putnam County Department of Solid Waste for source separation and curbside or dropoff collection, consistent with the County Solid Waste Management Law, and any town or village mandatory recycling law already meeting the county's minimum standards satisfies this article.

The county coordinates but does not run curbside pickup itself; that responsibility sits with Carmel, Kent, Patterson, Philipstown, Putnam Valley, Southeast, and the villages of Brewster, Cold Spring, and Nelsonville. Waste transporters and multidomicile building owners carry separate, specific obligations spelled out later in the article for keeping recyclables segregated through collection and delivery to market.