Wellington, FL Trash & Recycling: Recycling Rules (2026)

Sec. 13-3 of the Wellington Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance No. 2025-23 on September 3, 2025, sets the Village's property maintenance standard for solid waste and recycling storage. Subsection B(1) requires all solid waste to be stored in garbage cans or dumpsters kept in sanitary condition, and states that, except as otherwise provided, garbage cans and recycling containers must be kept indoors or placed in a portion of the rear or side yard screened from the public right-of-way by a wall, fence, or hedge.

Dumpsters get the same treatment: Wellington requires them to be screened and located in a manner the Village approves. The requirement applies to every property within Wellington's municipal boundaries under subsection A, so it reaches single-family lots in Palm Beach Little Ranches and Rustic Ranches the same as properties near the Mall at Wellington Green. Ownership of the material itself is addressed separately: Sec. 17-18 vests ownership of solid waste and recyclable material collected under the Village's hauling contract in Wellington, not the resident or the contractor, once it is set out for pickup.

Chapter 17's definitions section folds a recycling container into the mandatory residential collection program run by the Village's franchised hauler. Because Sec. 13-3 sits in the property maintenance article rather than the solid waste chapter, Wellington's Planning, Zoning and Building Department and its Code Compliance Officers, not the hauler, are the ones who cite a resident whose bins sit exposed to the street between collection days.