Indianapolis trash collection moved to a new hauler on January 1, 2026. LRS, short for Lakeshore Recycling Systems, now serves homes in seven of the city’s eleven solid waste districts, the areas Republic Services and WM used to cover. The other four districts stay with city crews from the Department of Public Works. Pickup days did not change, and recycling carts stayed the same (City of Indianapolis, DPW).

Photo: Houses in the New Augusta neighborhood of Indianapolis. Nyttend, 2011-03-27. Public domain · Source. Resized for web.

Who collects your trash now

The city announced LRS as its solid waste collection vendor on March 12, 2025. Since January 1, 2026, LRS picks up trash for residents in the seven districts that the old private vendors served. Residents in the remaining four districts keep service from Indy DPW and its crews in AFSCME Local #725. Households that were already eligible for city trash service kept their existing set-out locations. LRS works with Reworld and Southside Landfill on solid waste, heavy trash and leaf service (City of Indianapolis, DPW).

Your district decides who comes to your street. The city’s district lookup and trash pickup day lookup give the answer for your address.

The gray cart swap

Ahead of the switch, LRS crews began dropping off new gray trash carts on October 6, 2025, to homes served by Republic Services and WM. Each cart came with a hang tag of instructions from LRS. Residents could use the new cart as soon as it arrived and were asked to leave the old cart empty at the curb so crews could take it away (City of Indianapolis, DPW).

  • The exchange was free.
  • The new cart belongs to the address. Leave it behind when you move.
  • Homes already served by Indy DPW that had a gray cart did not need to do anything.
  • The carts are city-branded, and the city will own them when the LRS contract ends.

What stayed the same

The city said pickup days would not change with the new hauler, though the time of day your trash is picked up may vary. Recycling customers kept their existing recycling carts (City of Indianapolis, DPW).

Curbside recycling for every home in 2028

The March 2025 announcement also set a date for recycling. Universal curbside recycling will begin for all Indianapolis residents in 2028. The recyclables will be processed at a newly built materials recovery facility under Indy DPW’s agreement with WM (City of Indianapolis, DPW).

What this is not

The change is a switch of hauler in seven districts, not a new pickup schedule. It did not move pickup days. It did not replace recycling carts. The four districts collected by Indy DPW kept their city crews.