Kentucky 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, Louisville and Lexington collect curbside themselves; Bowling Green contracts a private hauler. Kentucky has no statewide bottle deposit, PaintCare paint, mattress or electronics recycling program.
Find your city
The largest Kentucky cities and their official collection pages:
- Louisville: Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government — Public Works, Solid Waste Management Services Division. Metro crews collect garbage only inside the Urban Services District; residents of unincorporated Jefferson County must contract directly with a private waste collection company. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Lexington: Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government — Division of Waste Management (Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works). Households with city waste collection get a green trash cart, a blue recycling cart and a gray yard waste cart, and trash, recycling and yard waste are generally collected on the same day. Official page ↗
- Bowling Green: Scott Waste Services under the city’s exclusive residential franchise, billed by Bowling Green Municipal Utilities. Sanitation service is provided by Scott Waste to all residential customers in Bowling Green, with BGMU providing the billing. Official page ↗
Missing your city? Suggest a City.
Who collects in Kentucky
- All Kentucky counties must designate a solid waste management area or district and adopt a solid waste management plan, so collection and recycling arrangements are set locally. 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: No statewide container deposit law. Kentucky is not among the ten states with a beverage container deposit law listed by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research. Source ↗
- Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare lists programs in twelve states and the District of Columbia; Kentucky 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 ↗
- Electronics: No statewide electronics law. The Division of Waste Management states that electronic waste and electrical products in homes are not currently regulated or banned from landfill disposal in Kentucky, though it encourages recycling. Source ↗
- Yard waste: No statewide landfill ban. No statewide ban was found; KRS 224.43-345 only requires each area solid waste management plan to assess opportunities to ban grass clippings, leaves and other yard wastes from municipal solid waste disposal facilities, so any ban is local. Source ↗
State agency
- State agency: Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division of Waste Management — Recycling and Local Assistance Branch. The branch helps counties and cities plan and run solid waste and recycling programs, awards Kentucky Pride Fund recycling, composting and household hazardous waste grants, and handles waste tires, litter and illegal dumps. Official website ↗
- Find your local program: Find your county solid waste coordinator ↗
Flag of Kentucky. Public-domain artwork. Artwork: Commonwealth of Kentucky. Source. Resized to 480 pixels wide.
Materials with their own rules
Paint · Lithium-ion batteries · Household hazardous waste · Mattresses · Pizza boxes · Christmas trees
Neighboring states
Illinois · Indiana · Missouri · Ohio · Tennessee · Virginia · West Virginia
Sources
Official pages used: eec.ky.gov · eec.ky.gov · louisvilleky.gov · louisvilleky.gov · lexingtonky.gov · bgmu.com · cga.ct.gov · paintcare.org · mattressrecyclingcouncil.org · eec.ky.gov · apps.legislature.ky.gov · eec.ky.gov.
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