Wausau, WI Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

030(a) lists 15 categories of material every residential occupant must separate from postconsumer waste: lead acid batteries, major appliances, waste oil, yard waste, aluminum containers, bi-metal containers, corrugated paper or other container board, foam polystyrene packaging, glass containers, magazines, newspaper, office paper, rigid plastic containers (PETE, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS, and other resins), steel containers, and waste tires. Subsection (c) requires every owner and occupant, residential and nonresidential alike, to place waste in the correct designated cart; mixed loads, whether solid waste dumped in a recycling cart or recyclables dumped in a trash cart, 'shall not be collected' at all.

' Limited exceptions exist under subsection (b): separation is not required for waste routed through a Department-licensed processing facility that recovers the same materials in as pure a form as technically feasible, for solid waste burned as a minor supplemental fuel source (under 30 percent heat input), or for a material granted a state variance under Wis. 11(2m). Yard waste gets its own handling requirement under subsection (d): it must be kept out of both the recycling and trash carts and taken to the City's yard waste site or composted on-site. These separation duties were codified by Ord. No. 61-6011, § 1, adopted March 24, 2026.