San Antonio, TX Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Sec. 14-12 sets the residential recycling rules layered on top of Sec. 14-10's general container procedures. Every participating household gets a blue container serviced once a week on a director-designated day. Acceptable materials are newspaper, mixed office paper, magazines, corrugated cardboard, Kraft paper, aluminum and tin cans, steel aerosol cans, plastic bottles, tops and containers, and single-use plastic bags bundled into a soccer-ball-sized bundle; jars, bottles, and food containers should be rinsed and free of contaminants, and everything must go in loose, never bagged, except for the bundled plastic bags themselves.

Department staff may inspect carts at their discretion, and a container will not be collected if it holds non-recyclable waste such as refuse, appliances, clothes, dead animals, garden hoses, toys, diapers, grass clippings, bagged leaves, or household hazardous waste. When a cart is skipped for contamination, the department notifies the resident in writing of the reason, and the resident can remove the offending material and set the cart out again on the next scheduled recycling day; repeated contamination can bring a non-compliance contamination fee under Sec.

14-30. A resident who opts out of the program, or who is removed from it for chronic contamination, does not receive a blue cart and instead gets once-per-week refuse collection only, and may be issued an extra brown container with additional monthly fees for at least six months. Placement, removal, and alley collection for recycling carts follow the same rules set out in Sec. 14-10 for all container types, and a resident wanting an additional recycling container must first show they are using their existing cart correctly.