Saint Paul Trash Pickup Schedule & Recycling Rules, Minnesota

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

The Saint Paul trash pickup schedule is set by Saint Paul Public Works for every home of one to four units. FCC Environmental or City crews collect bagged garbage weekly, or every other week with the smallest cart, and Eureka Recycling collects recycling weekly. The City’s Garbage & Recycling Day Map gives your hauler and day. What trips people up: carts must be out by 6 a.m. with three feet clear on every side, or they may be missed.

• Who collects: Saint Paul Public Works coordinates collection for homes and buildings of one to four units; FCC Environmental or City crews haul the garbage and Eureka Recycling collects the recycling
• Your pickup day: depends on your address; the Garbage & Recycling Day Map ↗ shows your hauler and collection day
• Holiday changes: seven holidays push collection one day later for the rest of that week, Friday to Saturday; 2026 Collection Calendar ↗
• Missed pickup: after 6 p.m. or the next day, call 651-266-6101 or use the City’s request form; Report a Missed Collection ↗
• Contact: Solid Waste & Recycling, 651-266-6101, garbage@ci.stpaul.mn.us; billing 651-266-8858
• Official website: City of Saint Paul: Garbage and Recycling ↗

Photo: Saint Paul skyline and the Mississippi River from the West Side. Cliff, 2008-06-06. CC BY 2.0 · Source. Resized for web.

How the Saint Paul pickup schedule works

Every household with one to four units is enrolled automatically and must have a garbage cart and active service. FCC Environmental, a private hauler, serves about 90% of these homes and City trucks serve the rest; the City handles billing, carts and service calls. Your collection day is the same for garbage and recycling, and the Day Map shows it for any address.

• Calendar. The 2026 Collection Calendar marks the every-other-week garbage weeks and the holiday delays.
• Set-out. Carts go out by 6 a.m.; crews collect from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday.
• Placement. Set carts at the alley or curb edge, less than four feet from it, lid arrows facing out, three feet from each other and from anything else. Not in the street, behind a car, inside a fence, in a snowbank or in standing water.
• Bags and lids. Bag all garbage and close the lid. Extra bags that do not fit cost $4.25 each, plus tax.
• Walk-up service. Free for residents who cannot bring carts out; otherwise it is a paid garbage-only service, $22.92 a month under 100 feet and $29.17 over 100 feet, plus tax.
• Who is not served. Buildings with five or more units hire a licensed private hauler for garbage (5 to 11 units may ask to join City service), while FCC Environmental collects their recycling under a City contract. Mixed-use buildings and businesses hire their own hauler.

What goes in the Saint Paul recycling cart

Recycling is single-sort: put everything loose in the cart or in paper bags, never in plastic bags, with the lid closed. Up to six paper grocery bags or three cardboard boxes of extra recycling can sit beside the cart; cut cardboard to fit and do not bundle it. Empty and rinse containers.

• Yes:
  • plastic containers numbered 1, 2 and 5, caps on
  • food and beverage cans
  • aluminum foil, trays and pie tins
  • empty aerosol cans that held nothing hazardous
  • glass food and beverage bottles and jars, caps off
  • milk, juice and soup cartons
  • paper, mail, magazines and paper padded envelopes
  • cardboard and cereal boxes
  • delivery pizza boxes
• No:
  • plastic bags and film
  • plastics 3, 4, 6 and 7
  • black plastic
  • containers over three gallons, bins and toys
  • hoses, cords and string lights
  • food and compostable plastics
  • foam or paper to-go cups, containers and egg cartons
  • batteries, electronics and light bulbs
  • hazardous waste, needles, propane and helium tanks
  • medicine
  • clothing and textiles
  • shredded paper
  • scrap metal, hangers and cookware

Plastic film (except black), cords and string lights go to the Ramsey County Environmental Center. For single items, search Eureka Recycling’s What Can I Recycle? ↗ or call Eureka at 651-222-7678.

Yard waste and food scraps

Grass, leaves and branches never go in the garbage or recycling cart. The City’s Seasonal Yard Waste Subscription costs $160 a year for a 64-gallon cart plus up to eight compostable bags or bundles a week, collected on your garbage day. The 2026 season runs to Friday, November 13, weather permitting, and enrollment for 2027 opens Sunday, November 1. One-time pickups cost $4.25 per bag or bundle, booked at least two business days ahead. Bags must be certified compostable; bags and twine-tied bundles stay under 40 pounds and three feet long, with no wood over three inches thick.

Ramsey County’s yard waste sites are free for county residents with proof of residency. From April through November they open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; from December through March, Saturday and Sunday only. Empty bags on site and take them home. Every site takes leaves, grass, garden waste, pumpkins and food scraps. The four in Saint Paul:

• Battle Creek, 389 Winthrop St. S: no trees or branches.
• Frank and Sims, 1150 Sims Ave.: trees and branches too.
• Midway, 1943 Pierce Butler Rt.: trees and branches too.
• Summit Hill, 870 Pleasant Ave.: no trees or branches; access to Pleasant Avenue from Benhill Road and Victoria Street South is closed until late October.

Saint Paul has no curbside food scraps collection yet. The Ramsey and Washington counties Food Scraps Pickup Program reaches the rest of Ramsey County once sorting equipment is installed at the Waste Management transfer station in Saint Paul, due by the end of 2027. Until then, drop bagged food scraps, including meat, bones and dairy, at a county yard waste site, the Environmental Center or a 24/7 District Council site: Como Park, 1149 Beulah Lane; Highland Park, 800 Snelling Ave. S.; or Union Park, at Carroll Avenue and Griggs Street North. The Macalester-Groveland site at 1647 Grand Ave. is permanently closed.

Christmas trees go next to the garbage cart on your collection day from January 2 to 15 each year, one per unit, without decorations or stand. Live trees over six feet and 20 pounds are not taken, nor are artificial trees.

Bulky trash pickup in Saint Paul

Since July 1, 2026, bulky items need no appointment. The service covers homes of one to four units and buildings that joined City garbage service.

1. Set items at your usual collection spot by 6 a.m. on your regular garbage day, next to but not leaning on the cart. With every-other-week service, use a pickup week.
2. Label each item “bulky” and empty it of food, liquids, gas and batteries; drain water heaters and small engines.
3. A separate truck collects it within two business days.

• Each garbage cart includes 12 bulky items per calendar year, counted from January 1, 2026. More cost $30 each, plus tax.
• One item is about one cubic yard, 3 by 3 by 3 feet. Anything within 10 feet of your cart is treated as set out and counts.
• Furniture, appliances including refrigerators and microwaves, TVs, computers and drained mowers are accepted. Construction debris, concrete, drywall, treated wood, tires, yard waste, cardboard and extra garbage bags are refused.

Mattresses, box springs and metal bed frames never go out as bulky items. Second Chance Recycling picks them up free, without limit and outside the 12-item count: book online or at 612-787-3770, up to four items per request. Mechanical beds, headboards and footboards are not part of the program. In buildings of five or more units, the owner arranges mattress pickup.

Saint Paul holiday trash schedule

When New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas falls on a weekday, collection on or after the holiday runs one day late for the rest of that week, and Friday moves to Saturday. The 2026 Collection Calendar marks each delayed day.

Hazardous waste, electronics and drop-off sites

Paint, batteries, motor oil, syringes and medicine cannot go in either cart. If a label says caution, warning, danger or poison and product is left inside, it is household hazardous waste. Ramsey County takes it free at one year-round site. Bring proof of residency and stay in your vehicle while staff unload.

• Ramsey County Environmental Center, 1700 Kent St., Roseville, MN 55113. Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Sunday, Monday, county holidays and Christmas Eve. Free for residents of Ramsey, Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Scott and Washington counties. Takes hazardous waste including all batteries, paint, automotive fluids, propane tanks and labeled sharps; TVs, computers and phones; countertop kitchen appliances such as microwaves, toasters and coffee makers; small electric items under 20 pounds; household recycling, scrap metal, plastic film and food scraps. Hotline 651-633-3279.
• Used oil shed, 1352 Ben Franklin Road, Arden Hills. Open 24/7 for household motor oil, oil filters and antifreeze only.

Electronics can also go at the curb as bulky items. Many hardware stores take leftover paint; see PaintCare’s drop-off locator ↗. Old medicine goes to a Ramsey County drop box, such as the one inside the Law Enforcement Center, 425 Grove St., Saint Paul, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Fees and billing

Garbage is billed to the property owner as a quarterly City assessment after each quarter. Rates from April 1 to December 31, 2026, with state and county fees:

Every household of one to four units also pays the City’s annual Solid Waste Fee, $43.50 per unit in 2026, on the Ramsey County property tax statement. Recycling has no separate bill: it is $172.75 per unit for one- to four-unit properties in 2026, also on the tax statement. Bulky items past 12 cost $30 each plus tax.

There are no late fees, but a bill still unpaid on November 15 goes onto the property taxes with a 5.95% certification fee. Pay online (free from a bank account, 2.49% by card), by mail or at 700 City Hall, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Thursday. Billing questions: 651-266-8858 extension 1 or ofs-assessments@ci.stpaul.mn.us. Since 2026, owners of two- to four-unit buildings can apply to share garbage carts.

Missed pickup, damaged carts and new carts

1. Rule out a holiday delay and wait until crews finish at 6 p.m.
2. Check the usual reasons for a skip: a cart out late, too close to other objects, overflowing or holding the wrong items.
3. Report it after 6 p.m. or the next day: call 651-266-6101 or use the City’s online request form, monitored Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

A bulky item set out by 6 a.m. and still there after two business days counts as missed. The same form and number handle cart repairs, replacements and size changes: one garbage cart size change per quarter is free, and each further change costs $40.

Materials with their own rules

• Microwaves: a bulky item at the curb, or free at the Environmental Center; never in the trash in Minnesota.
• Mattresses: free, unlimited Second Chance Recycling pickup, never counted as bulky.
• Paint: hardware stores on PaintCare’s locator, or the Environmental Center.
• Lithium-ion batteries: never in either cart; tape the ends and take them to the Environmental Center.
• Household hazardous waste: free at the Environmental Center, Tuesday to Saturday.
• Pizza boxes: delivery pizza boxes go in recycling.
• Leaves: never in the garbage or recycling cart; the City’s yard waste subscription through November 13, 2026, or free at a Ramsey County yard waste site, emptied from the bags.
• Christmas trees: at the curb January 2 to 15.
• Tires: refused as bulky items.
• Aerosol cans and propane tanks: empty non-hazardous aerosol cans go in recycling; propane tanks go to the Environmental Center.

More in Minnesota

• Minnesota trash and recycling rules
• Minneapolis
• Holiday changes by city
• Bulk pickup rules by city
• Missed pickup contacts by city
• Trash fees by city
• Drop-off locations by city