Everyone with curbside pickup inside Joplin city limits is on new terms starting October 1, 2026. The city renewed its solid waste contract with Republic Services, its contracted hauler, and base service becomes one trash cart picked up weekly at $17.42 a month. Crews stop taking bags set beside the cart, yard waste needs its own sign-up, and bulky items have to be scheduled by phone (City of Joplin).
Context photo: Grand Falls, a waterfall on Shoal Creek in Joplin, Missouri. AbeEzekowitz, 2008-01-05. CC BY 3.0 · Source. Resized for web.
One cart is the limit, and overflow stays at the curb
Starting October 1, Republic Services collects only the trash that fits inside your single cart. Bags, boxes and loose items left next to it are not picked up, so anything that does not fit has to wait for the next week, go in a second cart or go to a drop-off site. The $17.42 base rate covers that weekly cart, four bulky pickups a year and eligibility for yard waste collection (City of Joplin).
Chad Weller, assistant director of Joplin’s Public Works Department, put the reach of the change plainly: “Everyone who takes trash to the curb is impacted.”
A second trash cart is $5.50, recycling is $5.26
A second trash cart adds $5.50 a month. Curbside recycling stays optional and costs $5.26 a month, which includes one recycling cart; an extra recycling cart is another $5.50. The City Council looked at making recycling mandatory for every resident and kept it optional to hold down the rate increase. Republic Services won the work as the lowest and best bidder in an open competitive bid with three qualified bidders (City of Joplin).
Unneeded extra carts hit the November bill
If you have a cart on your property you do not want, ask Republic Services to take it away by October 1. Starting with the November bill, customers are billed for every extra cart still on the property. Removal requests go through the same channels as any other account change: the online form at the bottom of the Republic Services page for Joplin, or customer service at 800-431-1507, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (City of Joplin).
Yard waste needs its own sign-up
Grass clippings, weeds, leaves and small tree limbs or brush can no longer be mixed into the trash cart, because Missouri Senate Bill 530 prohibits disposing of yard waste in landfills. Curbside yard waste collection is included in the $17.42 rate, but it does not start on its own: you have to contact Republic Services to get your address added to the schedule, and service began in October for customers who signed up. Pickup runs every other week, like recycling, and the collection day you are given at sign-up may not match your trash day.
Residents buy their own biodegradable bags, such as kraft paper, for grass and leaves, and bundle limbs with biodegradable wrapping such as compostable twine, with a limit of 10 bags or bundles per pickup. Anyone who would rather not use paper bags can rent a 96-gallon yard waste cart, marked with a large sticker, for $5.50 a month. The city also keeps free options open: a tree limb drop-off site at 1701 N. Schifferdecker on designated weekends, and a compost facility for grass and leaves at the Turkey Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, 3457 West Eddy Lane (City of Joplin).
Bulky items need a call first
Mattresses and anything else too big for the cart are no longer a set-it-out-and-hope arrangement. From October 1, call Republic Services ahead to schedule the pickup. Each pickup is capped at 4 cubic yards, and each home gets 4 pickups a year. There is no extra charge, since the cost sits inside the base solid waste rate (City of Joplin).
What this is not
These cart, yard waste and bulky item rules come from Joplin’s own contract with Republic Services and apply to residents inside Joplin city limits. Missouri Senate Bill 530, the yard waste landfill ban behind the separate sign-up, is state law and is a different thing from the city’s service terms. If you live outside the city limits, your hauler and your rates are not set by this contract.
