Taunton, MA Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

B, added February 21, 2012, requires that for collection by the City of Taunton or its contractor, each household participating in the curbside trash and recycling program place recyclables only in City-approved plastic bins provided by the City of Taunton at no charge. A, which requires solid waste to go in purchased 30-to-33-gallon bags costing $2 each: recyclables get a free City-issued bin instead, and mixing recyclables into the paid trash bags runs against the ordinance's separate-stream design. Subsection C authorizes the Commissioner of Public Works to establish and administer the policies and procedures needed to run the curbside recycling program day to day, including bin distribution and replacement.

The underlying rulemaking power for what materials qualify as recyclables, and how they must be sorted before collection, traces to § 420-3, adopted in 1995, which lets the Commissioner adopt written rules governing preparation, sorting and collection of recyclables and compostables with the approval of the Municipal Council Committee on Solid Waste. Chapter 420 cross-references Chapter 287 (junk, old metal, antiques and secondhand articles) and Chapter 350 (property maintenance) for related material-handling obligations elsewhere in the Code.