Montana 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, Billings and Great Falls collect curbside themselves; in Missoula residents hire their own hauler. Montana has no statewide bottle deposit, PaintCare paint or mattress program.
Find your city
The largest Montana cities and their official collection pages:
- Billings: City of Billings Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division. Billings customers get weekly garbage collection and monthly cardboard recycling collection, and green yard waste bins are collected weekly from the first full week of April to the last full week of November. Official page ↗ Look up your collection day ↗
- Missoula: no city collection: residents contract private haulers. The city says garbage in Missoula is a private utility and directs residents to Republic Services or Grizzly Disposal & Recycling for service. Official page ↗
- Great Falls: City of Great Falls Public Works Department, Solid Waste Division. Days of service vary by area of town, and the city asks residents to call the Solid Waste Office at 406-771-1401 to verify their collection day. Official page ↗
Missing your city? Suggest a City.
Who collects in Montana
- DEQ tells residents to contact their county solid waste management office to find out how household hazardous waste is handled in their area. Source ↗
- DEQ says many rural Montana communities cannot currently recycle plastics because of low market prices and long transport distances. Source ↗
- DEQ says Montanans recycle about 19 percent of the waste generated in the state. 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. Montana is not among the ten states with a beverage container deposit law (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont). Source ↗
- Paint: Not a PaintCare state. PaintCare says it operates programs in twelve states and the District of Columbia, and Montana 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’s Bye Bye Mattress program operates only in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island. See mattresses. Source ↗
State agency
- State agency: Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Solid Waste Program (Waste and Underground Tank Management Bureau). DEQ licenses and inspects Montana’s landfills, transfer stations and recycling facilities and provides recycling information and technical assistance to residents, businesses and local governments. Official website ↗
Flag of Montana. Public-domain artwork. Artwork: N.a. 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
Idaho · North Dakota · South Dakota · Wyoming
Sources
Official pages used: deq.mt.gov · deq.mt.gov · billingsmtpublicworks.gov · experience.arcgis.com · ci.missoula.mt.us · greatfallsmt.gov · cga.ct.gov · paintcare.org · byebyemattress.com · deq.mt.gov · deq.mt.gov.
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