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Lafayette trash pickup: collection days, recycling and bulk waste rules.

Lafayette trash pickup is run by Lafayette Consolidated Government’s Environmental Quality Division through its contracted hauler, Acadiana Waste Services. Garbage, recycling, yard waste and bulky items are all collected once a week on one day, which you find by address on the LCG lookup map. Curbside recycling is for city residents only. The rule that trips people up most: the lid must close, and carts and piles need three feet of space around them.

  • Who collects: Lafayette Consolidated Government Environmental Quality Division ↗, with Acadiana Waste Services as the contracted hauler for homes in the City of Lafayette and unincorporated Lafayette Parish
  • Your pickup day: depends on your address; Find Your Collection Day ↗. Garbage, recycling, yard waste and bulky items all go on the same day, once a week
  • Holiday changes: no collection on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas; that day and the rest of the week move one day later; AWS Holiday Schedule ↗
  • Missed pickup: before 8 p.m. on your pickup day call AWS at 337-205-7710; after 8 p.m. call LCG at 337-291-8529, or report it through Lafayette 311 ↗
  • Contact: LCG Environmental Quality Division 337-291-8529; recycling office 337-291-5637; Acadiana Waste Services 337-205-7710; 311 or 337-291-8200
  • Official website: LCG: Trash and Recycling ↗

Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana

Photo: Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. Infrogmation of New Orleans, 2012-11-10. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source. Resized for web.

Lafayette trash and recycling pickup schedule

Lafayette Consolidated Government (LCG) runs the residential waste program for the City of Lafayette and the unincorporated parts of Lafayette Parish; Acadiana Waste Services (AWS) is the contracted collector. Everything at the curb goes on one weekly service day. A separate AWS truck takes bulky items, so it may come at a different hour.

Your day comes from the address lookup, not from a printed route map. About 7,000 households got a new permanent day in the week of August 3, 2026, when LCG and AWS rebalanced routes after recycling participation nearly doubled since 2023; the news story on that change has the details. The lookup settles it either way.

Cart or pile What it looks like How often
Garbage 96-gallon black cart with a red lid, assigned to your address by serial number Once a week
Recycling Green cart with a green lid, city residents only, on request Once a week, same day
Yard waste Bags, an open can of up to 35 gallons, or neat piles of limbs Once a week, same day
Bulky items Furniture, appliances, TVs at the curb, separate truck Once a week, same day
  • Put the cart out with the arrows on the lid pointing to the street, at least three feet from anything else at the curb: other carts, mailboxes, parked cars, yard waste piles.
  • Do not overfill. The lid must close completely; an overflowing cart is not collected.
  • Bagged trash goes inside the cart, not beside it. Loose bags at the curb count as regular garbage and are left behind, except after the three holidays named below.
  • A second garbage cart costs a one-time $90 through the AWS second cart form ↗ or 337-205-7710, paid before delivery. Carts for new service, replacements and second carts are delivered within three business days, or you can pick one up at the AWS yard at 2107 Carmel Drive, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • New residents inside the city limits start garbage service through LUS at 337-291-8280. New residents in the unincorporated parish sign up with AWS at 337-205-7710 or its service signup form ↗.

Businesses contract their own collection; LUS points commercial customers to AWS for that.

What goes in the Lafayette recycling cart

Curbside recycling is available to houses, duplexes and triplexes inside the City of Lafayette. If your LUS bill carries the “total environmental charge,” you are eligible. The cart is free and the service is part of your monthly bill; request it on the AWS recycling page ↗ or by calling 337-205-7710. Carts for addresses inside the city limits arrive within three business days. Parish residents without a cart can bring the same items to the AWS drop-off at 2107 Carmel Drive.

Everything goes in loose; AWS says no bagged material in the recycling cart.

  • Yes, cans: aluminum and steel food and drink cans, aluminum pie plates and foil, all rinsed, with steel lids fully separated from the cans and foil free of food.
  • Yes, paper: office paper of any color, newspaper taken out of its plastic sleeve, magazines, phone books, catalogs, writing and copier paper, cereal and other dry food boxes, beverage 6- and 12-pack paper cartons, and corrugated cardboard.
  • Yes, plastics: only containers with a neck: water and soda bottles, condiment and shampoo bottles, milk jugs, bleach, liquid laundry detergent and cleaning-product bottles, rinsed.
  • No: plastic bags, plastic packaging, any plastic without a neck (tubs, clamshells, cups), Styrofoam, shredded paper, and cardboard food boxes such as pizza boxes, which AWS keeps out for sanitation reasons. Glass is not on the accepted list. Anything not listed goes in the garbage cart.
  • A full list is printed on the lid of the recycling cart. For items the program does not take, LCG’s Know Before You Throw ↗ map and PDF list local businesses and nonprofits that accept them for reuse or recycling, or call the recycling office at 337-291-5637.

Yard waste and food scraps

Yard waste rides on your regular collection day. There is no curbside food scrap program; food goes in the garbage cart.

  • Grass, leaves, flowers, stalks, stems and small trimmings go in yard bags or in a can of no more than 35 gallons with the lid off, so the driver can see it is yard waste. Keep each under 50 pounds.
  • Limbs are stacked loose, not tied or bundled, as far from the garbage cart as you can: up to 18 inches across, 6 feet long and 50 pounds each. No root balls, no trash, no treated wood.
  • Set yard waste out the night before your collection day.
  • For a large pile of tree trimmings, AWS asks you to schedule at least 24 hours ahead through its contact form ↗, by email to customerservice@acadianawaste.com or at 337-205-7710. AWS picks up trimmings the resident cut; a tree company must haul away its own work.
  • Christmas trees go to the curb on your regular collection day.

You can also haul yard waste to the Dean Domingue Compost Facility at 400 Dugas Road for $6 per cubic yard, about a half-ton pickup bed. Tree and green waste only: no processed wood, lumber, trash or root balls. Finished compost is free to pick up; a loader fills open pickups and trailers, and a car or camper-top truck needs your own shovel and containers. Hours are in the drop-off list below.

Bulk trash pickup in Lafayette

AWS collects bulky items every week on your regular collection day, with a truck dedicated to large items. “Bulky” means things that will not fit in the 96-gallon cart: appliances, furniture, TVs, mattresses and the like. No appointment is required, but AWS asks you to schedule through its contact form ↗, email or 337-205-7710 so the right truck is dispatched on time.

  • Set items at the curb before your service day, at least three feet from carts, mailboxes, yard waste piles and parked cars, with no trees or utility lines overhead and nothing blocking the truck’s reach.
  • Car tires are collected as bulky items, up to five per week, from residences only.
  • Not collected: bagged items, which count as regular garbage and belong in the cart; construction and remodeling debris from a residence, including toilets; hazardous waste; and fencing of wood, plastic or metal.
  • Construction debris goes in a rented dumpster or to a construction and demolition landfill; call 337-291-8529 for locations. If you hire a contractor, LCG recommends putting disposal in the contract.
  • LCG holds occasional Debris Drop events at parks for city and unincorporated parish residents; dates are posted on the Debris Drop page ↗ when scheduled.

Lafayette holiday trash schedule

Acadiana Waste Services suspends residential collection on four holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. On every other holiday, Labor Day included, collection runs as normal. LCG posts any weather closure on its news page; during the January 2026 freeze, AWS kept its regular schedule while city buildings closed.

When a holiday falls on a weekday, the holiday’s collection moves to the next day and every later day that week moves back one day. A Friday route is collected on Saturday. The days still ahead:

Holiday Date What changes
Thanksgiving Thursday, November 26, 2026 Thursday routes collected Friday, Friday routes Saturday
Christmas Friday, December 25, 2026 Friday routes collected Saturday
New Year’s Day Friday, January 1, 2027 Friday routes collected Saturday
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, January 18, 2027 Every route that week moves one day later; Friday routes Saturday

After Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, AWS also collects extra garbage that does not fit the cart, as long as it is bagged and placed neatly beside the cart. That is the only time loose bags at the curb are picked up.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Household hazardous waste never goes in a cart or a bulky pile. Lafayette does not yet have a permanent hazardous waste site. LCG collects chemicals at Household Hazardous Waste Day events, announced on its Household Hazardous Waste Day page ↗ when scheduled; the page says no event is on the calendar right now. Between events, the Know Before You Throw list names retailers and programs that take specific items.

  • Taken on Household Hazardous Waste Day: alkaline batteries, chemical cleaners, fluorescent tubes, gasoline, herbicides and pesticides, mercury thermometers, paint and paint products, paint thinner and stripper, photographic chemicals, pool chemicals, stains and turpentine. Household waste only; no business waste.
  • Not taken there: appliances, furniture, TVs and monitors, copiers, compact fluorescent bulbs, toner cartridges, small electronics, tapes and discs, smoke detectors, automotive and rechargeable batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, compressed gas cylinders, medical waste, medicine, radioactive material and explosives including ammunition.
  • Electronics: TVs go to the curb as bulky items. Computers, phones and other small electronics are not collected curbside or at the event; Know Before You Throw points to local drop-offs.

A permanent site is under construction. The Environmental Quality Convenience Center at 400 Dugas Road, Lafayette, LA 70507, broke ground on July 31, 2025, and construction was expected to finish in 2026. LCG has posted what to expect once it opens: household hazardous waste, garbage, bulk waste, construction debris, scrap metal, recyclables including glass, electronics and tires; Wednesday to Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to noon; free for city and unincorporated parish residents with a driver’s license and active garbage service, $20 per car or truck and $30 with a trailer for others, card only; two visits a day. Watch the EQCC page ↗ for the opening date.

Drop-off sites open now:

  • Acadiana Waste Services recycling drop-off, 2107 Carmel Drive, Lafayette, LA 70501. Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to noon. For Lafayette Parish residents without curbside recycling. Takes the same cans, paper and neck plastics as the cart, loose. 337-205-7710.
  • Dean Domingue Compost Facility, 400 Dugas Road, Lafayette, LA 70507. Yard waste drop-off Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Saturday 7 a.m. to noon; in December, January and February, weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the second Saturday of the month only, 7:30 a.m. to noon. $6 per cubic yard. Free compost pickup weekdays 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. (winter: the second Saturday, 7 a.m. to noon). Tree and green waste only. 337-291-5637.

Fees and billing

City of Lafayette residents pay for curbside service on their monthly Lafayette Utilities System bill, as a garbage line (“Curbside Service - Trash/Recycling/Yard Waste/Bulky”) plus an environmental services line. LCG calls that the “total environmental charge,” and having it on the bill makes a city address eligible for a recycling cart. Unincorporated parish residents without LUS service are billed by Acadiana Waste Services directly. Neither LCG nor AWS publishes the monthly rate on its pages; the LUS bill shows it.

  • Recycling cart: no charge; the service is part of the monthly bill.
  • Second garbage cart: $90 one time, paid when ordered.
  • Yard waste brought to the compost facility: $6 per cubic yard. Compost to take home: free.
  • Environmental Quality Convenience Center, when it opens: free for city and unincorporated parish residents with active garbage service; $20 per car or truck and $30 with a trailer for others, card only.
  • LUS customer service: 337-291-8280.

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

Timing decides who you call. Before 8 p.m. on your pickup day, call Acadiana Waste Services at 337-205-7710; the truck may still be on its route. After 8 p.m., call LCG’s Environmental Quality Division at 337-291-8529. Missed collections and stolen or broken carts can also be filed on Lafayette 311 ↗ or by dialing 311. Replacement carts are delivered within three business days or picked up at 2107 Carmel Drive. Each cart carries a serial number tied to your address, so do not swap carts with a neighbor.

Set-out rules and fines

  • Arrows on the cart lid point to the street; three feet of clearance around every cart and pile; lid closed.
  • Loose bags beside the cart are not collected outside the three holiday weeks.
  • Yard waste in bags or an open 35-gallon can, limbs stacked loose, nothing over 50 pounds, out the night before.
  • No construction debris, hazardous waste, fencing or bagged trash in the bulky pile; nothing overhead or in the truck’s way.
  • Illegal dumping and code complaints go to LCG’s Environmental Quality Division at 337-291-8529 or 311. LCG’s Code of Ordinances, Chapter 74 “Solid Waste,” is on Municode ↗.

Materials with their own rules

  • Household hazardous waste: Household Hazardous Waste Day events only, until the convenience center opens.
  • Paint: paint, stains, thinner and stripper go to Household Hazardous Waste Day. Louisiana has no PaintCare program.
  • Lithium-ion batteries: rechargeable batteries are refused at the event; Know Before You Throw lists retail drop-offs. Alkaline batteries are accepted.
  • Mattresses: curbside as a bulky item on your regular day.
  • Pizza boxes: garbage cart. AWS keeps cardboard food boxes out of the recycling cart.
  • Christmas trees: curbside on your regular collection day.
  • Tires: up to five car tires a week as bulky items, residences only.
  • Aerosol cans and propane tanks: compressed gas cylinders are refused at the event and at Debris Drop; check Know Before You Throw.

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