Michigan 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, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Warren collect curbside themselves. Michigan has a bottle deposit, an electronics recycling law and a ban on yard waste in landfills, but no statewide PaintCare paint or mattress program.
Find your city
The largest Michigan cities and their official collection pages:
- Detroit: City of Detroit Department of Public Works, Solid Waste Division. Trash, recycling, bulk and yard waste are all picked up weekly, and residents can text their street address to get a reminder the evening before collection. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Grand Rapids: City of Grand Rapids Public Works Department (Waste Services). Trash is a pay-per-collection service billed per cart tip and requires a positive account balance, while curbside recycling is funded by a property tax millage and collected every other week on the regular collection day. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Warren: City of Warren Sanitation Division. Curbside compost collection runs April 1 to December 1 only, though the city Recycling Center accepts compost all year. Official page ↗
Missing your city? Suggest a City.
Who collects in Michigan
- Each Michigan community decides on its own whether to have a recycling program and how it works, so accepted materials and rules differ even between neighbouring cities. Source ↗
- If a deposit was paid on a beverage container it should be returned to any retailer selling that beverage rather than put in the trash, because deposit containers are prohibited from Michigan landfills. 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: Michigan has a bottle deposit law. The Michigan Beverage Container Deposit Law of 1976 requires a 10-cent deposit, refunded on return, on containers of soft drinks, soda water, carbonated or mineral water, beer, ale and other malt drinks, and mixed wine or spirit drinks; water, juice, milk, hard cider and wine containers are not covered. Source ↗
- Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare lists twelve states and the District of Columbia where it operates paint stewardship programs, and Michigan is not among 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 operates programs only in states with mattress recycling laws: California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
- Electronics: Michigan’s 2008 electronics takeback law (Part 173) requires manufacturers of covered devices such as desktop and laptop computers, monitors, tablets, televisions and printers to register their brands annually and run a convenient free takeback program for consumers. Source ↗
- Yard waste: Banned from landfills statewide. Part 115 prohibits yard clippings such as grass, leaves, sticks and landscape trimmings from non-hazardous solid waste landfills; only clippings that are diseased, infested or part of an invasive species control program may be landfilled. Source ↗
State agency
- State agency: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), Materials Management Division. Administers Michigan’s solid waste law (Part 115), permits and registers disposal and materials-utilization facilities, and publishes recycling guidance and the statewide recycling directory for residents. Official website ↗
- Find your local program: Michigan Recycling Directory (EGLE) ↗
- Contact: 517-899-5594
Flag of Michigan. Public-domain artwork. 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
Sources
Official pages used: michigan.gov · michigan.gov · michigan.gov · detroitmi.gov · detroitmi.gov · grandrapidsmi.gov · grandrapidsmi.gov · cityofwarren.org · michigan.gov · paintcare.org · mattressrecyclingcouncil.org · michigan.gov · michigan.gov.
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