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

Sec. 14-12 of the San Antonio Code of Ordinances governs curbside recycling. Every participating household is provided a blue recycling container and receives collection once per week, on specific days the director designates each week. Under Sec. 14-10(a)(3), the city bases container provision on CPS Energy electric meter accounts and gives each residential account one container for each service type. Low-volume recyclers and homes with storage constraints can substitute a small container. The fee schedule in Sec. 14-30 lists an additional recycling cart at no charge, but Sec. 14-12(f) requires the household to demonstrate that it uses its existing container properly before another one is provided.

The city designates the acceptable materials, and the code lists 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-size bundle. The printed list does not name glass. Recyclable jars, bottles and other food containers must be rinsed and free of contaminants, and everything goes into the cart loosely rather than bagged.

Set-out rules come from Sec. 14-10, which Sec. 14-12(c) and (d) apply to recycling carts. Only city-provided containers are serviced, and nothing set outside or alongside the container is collected. The container and its contents cannot exceed the maximum weight imprinted on the container. Carts go to the designated collection point no earlier than 6:00 p.m. on the day before collection, must be out by 7:00 a.m. in non-CBD areas, and must come back in by 10:00 p.m. on collection day. A cart stays at least three feet from a mailbox, parked car, other fixed object or another container, sits with its wheels against the curb at the standard location, and needs 14 feet of overhead clearance. Alley service follows Sec. 14-10(c).

Department staff can inspect recycling containers at the director's discretion. A cart is not collected when it holds non-recyclable solid waste, and the code names refuse, appliances, clothes, dead animals, garden hoses, toys, diapers, grass clippings, bagged leaves and household hazardous waste.