Iowa Trash Pickup and Waste Rules

Iowa trash pickup is run by cities, counties and private haulers, not by the state.

Your pickup day comes from your city’s or hauler’s own lookup. Among the largest cities, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport collect curbside themselves. Iowa has a bottle deposit and a ban on yard waste in landfills, but no statewide PaintCare paint or mattress program.

Find your city

The largest Iowa cities and their official collection pages:

Des Moines: City of Des Moines Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division. Blue recycling carts are collected every two weeks on the regular garbage collection day, on either the yellow or the orange week of the city calendar. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗

Cedar Rapids: City of Cedar Rapids Solid Waste & Recycling Division (Utilities Department). The division issues three carts to residential properties: GARBY for garbage, CURBY for recycling and YARDY for yard waste and compost. Official page ↗

Davenport: City of Davenport Public Works Department. Curbside collection is offered to all single-family through three-plex households in the city, and the solid waste fee covers garbage, recycling, bulky waste and bundled brush. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗

Missing your city? Suggest a City.

Who collects in Iowa

Iowa law requires every city and county to adopt an ordinance making residents separate yard waste from other solid waste. Source ↗
Iowa DNR tells residents to contact their local landfill or transfer station for specific information on their local recycling program. Source ↗

National haulers (Republic Services, WM, Waste Connections) hold contracts in many places; the city or county names the hauler for each street.

State-level rules

Container deposit: Iowa has a bottle deposit law. Iowa’s Beverage Containers Control Law covers all carbonated and alcoholic beverage containers; consumers pay a five-cent deposit and get a five-cent refund at a store or redemption center. Source ↗
Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare lists programs in twelve states and the District of Columbia; Iowa is not one of them. Leftover paint goes through the local household hazardous waste program; see paint. Source ↗
Mattresses: No statewide mattress take-back program. The Mattress Recycling Council says its Bye Bye Mattress program operates statewide only in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
Yard waste: Banned from landfills statewide. Since 1991 Iowa has prohibited yard waste from being deposited in landfills (Iowa Code 455D.9), with narrow exceptions for disaster debris, pest control and landfills producing energy from methane. Source ↗

State agency

State agency: Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Land Quality Bureau. The DNR permits and regulates landfills, transfer stations and other solid waste facilities, administers the bottle deposit law’s redemption centers, and maps local recycling programs for residents. Official website ↗

Find your local program: DNR planning area map — find your local recycling program by address, city or county ↗