Curbside Garbage Information

The City of Houston provides residents with city services with a 96-gallon automated garbage cart. The SWMD provides weekly garbage and yard waste collection service to about 390,000 residential units and small commercial establishments.

Automated trash collection is cleaner, safer and more efficient than traditional manual collection. In the past, the department has incurred as much as $4 million in workers’ compensation costs each year using manual garbage collection. The automated system has reduced injuries, especially back-related injuries, which are common in garbage collection.

The containers used for automated garbage collection are manufactured using 50% recycled materials.

GARBAGE COLLECTION GUIDELINES

• City-provided containers must be placed at the curb between 6 p.m. the day before and 7 a.m. on the thursday, every week
• Place the container on the curb facing the street with the handle facing the house.
• Containers must be accessible and not blocked by obstacles, including parked cars, trees, mailboxes, fencing, etc. Blocked containers will not be emptied.
• Leave at least a three (3) feet space between garbage and recycling containers to allow the truck to safely operate.
• Remove containers from the curb line and/ or public view by 10:00 p.m. on the day of collection and stored in a secure location.